<warning, obsessed fanboy ranting and raving below. proceed at your own risk.>
<don't say I didn't warn you>
A few days ago, the Griever was irked.
For what reason, you ask? He went out looking for Hellsing to improve his fanboy-fu. He found it, and found that he had enough stashed away to get three DVDs worth.
And 'lo, he was happy.
For about three minutes. Then he was nearly frothing at the mouth.
Let us for a moment consider if it's morally acceptable to shoot the person, or people, who came up with the whole regional coding thing, shall we?
Yes it is. Unfortunately, since I don't own a firearm and have no idea on whom the ultimate blame for this rests, such course of action would have been counterproductive.
I mean, come on, I paid well in excess of ... well, a lot of cash for a notebook that'll last me for a few years of use as a my primary work'an'play system. I was willing to pay good money for imported _legally imported_ DVDs. But nooooo, because someone was being an uptight asshole about things I'd require, in the best of cases, an independant DVD player so I can enjoy stuff imported from the US.
Now, is it such a wonder that I have little objection to fansubs and such in this case? Okay, yah, I could go on, but ultimately this isn't really about me hating the established order of things from a purely consumer-fan based viewpoint.
Ahem.
Well, the Griever wasn't in a very good mood as a result, not even just because of that but because it was One of THOSE Days. You get his drift, dontcha?
Righty, so he decided to grasp at measures that he had little hope would work. He wrote a notice and pinned it to the notice-board near the entry of the dorm he lived in.
And 'lo, did a person answer, and bring upon him a boon of Hellsing episodes in the holy number of thirteen. And it was good. Plus, she was kinda cute.
This is why the Griever forgot that it was Thursday today, among other interesting events that happened as a result of inhaling all episodes in one sitting.
Ah well.
Fandom is alive people.
And it's given me a new perspective on some of the things I'd considered doing. Like some amusing ideas about Walter. And his life prior to the events shown in the show ... in our continuity at least.
You see, Walter had a son. A son who, even if not in the service of the Crown, loved him dearly. A son who was perhaps even more powerful in his peculiar ESP ability to telekinetically manipulate wires. A son who'd been wanting to join Hellsing, but was disgusted with the sort of downsizing it underwent after the Cromarty Assassination.
A son who thereupon decided to go his own way, and joined the Black Company, taking on his mother's (she'd been an Andermani Intelligence Officer) maiden name to avoid being followed. Who'd become an able soldier, and Marine Captain of a Cray infantry battalion. And who'd dropped everything after six years of service when he heard of the ridiculous accusations that the High Ridge Government was making following alledged Hellsing aggression against the Queen (end of the Hellsing series, and beginning of Act V).
He'd looked for the fastest available ship, and found that a small armed warpshuttle (the protoplast of the 'Pryde' class) was in orbit around the main occupied planet in the system they were in. He commandeered it, and the owner/pilot, and rushed off towards Manticore.
His name? Strauss. Tone McPain Strauss.
The warpshuttle was registered for a certain Mr. 'Katz', of Stingray employ, and the system Tone's unit had been in transit through had been Nippon.
Gives me a good way for my avvie to become aware of Hellsing, what they did, and realize what he'd just stumbled upon, since at the time he'd been considering creating Spookhouse a pretty serious project.
Okay, I'll stop now, especially since it's not healthy planning that far ahead in too much detail. The timestream mutable is.
Ahem.
Right, and yeah, now I know what it's like to have Hellsing on the brain. My sympathy Nate. I imagine the anime is harder to get rid of in that regard, if only for the soundtrack. Yum.
I kept laughing at one of the fansubbed episodes in which a subtitle states 'no his name is _not_ Alucard (Dracula spelled backwards)', especially since whoever did that sub had obviously never seen the ending. It's blatantly obvious in the final few scenes of the last episode that he _is_ Tepes. Drakuul. Or whatever you like to call him.
-Griever
who is stopping now, lest he get more carried away. Plus, he needs the sleep. *yawn*
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This is entirely spoiler material. Just so you're ewarned.
I actually found the end of the anime kind of a letdown - okay, it was nice and apocalyptic and all, but aside from offing the current major villain, it didn't really resolve anything. Granted, that was the point of the main arc, but the Victoria, Integra, even Alucard himself, all feel like they have another couple of episodes to go to reach the ends of their own character arcs. The only one whio really reaches a viable finshing point when it stops is Walter... which is good, I suppose, since he doesn't have much chance of being in a sequel. If she wasn't the viewpoint character, I'd expect Victoria to kick the bucket for good as well.
For all that, though, it is an engaging show, innit? :?) Kind of like Noir being fun despite being about a couple of stone cold assasins. And someday, when I get around to writing myown little deconstruction of Evangelion, I want to replace Kaji with Alucard. He should play well off of Ilpallazo as Gendo, Excel as Misato, Maya the catgirl, Ritsuko the grown up Powerpuff Girl, and Lina Inverse piloting Escaflowne instead of Asuka and Unit 02, don't you think? I'm still torn over whether to swap out Keele for Buaku, because while the look is similar enough, and it wouilld be an excuse for two mor catgirls somewhere, Buaku just isn't the mastermind type. Maybe I'll come up with someone better at some point. Preferably involving catgirls.
- CD
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"They're coming around!" Tone said grimly, gazing at the instruments.
"Bloody last time I take something without weapons out for a run, that's for sure." Griever muttered in the pilot's seat, left hand fiddling with the plot, while the right danced in its dataglove, manipulating the impulse drive output directly through reflex readings from the dataglove's sensor film.
"Umm ... what the ... ?" the other man's voice was more bewildered than anything else. "We've lost seals on the after airlock, and the doors are opening?"
Griever failed to register for a moment, then blinked. He looked back towards the passenger compartment, and saw Integra sitting calmly, smoking one of those vile things she liked so much. And smirking. Tone's father had an expression of bitter amusement on his face as well, while the young vampire sitting opposite him just stared, half in disbelief and half in shock.
"Oh," he blinked. "Well, that's one problem solved."
"What the _hell_ do you mean by that?" McPain asked, turning to face him, forgetting the sensor displays for a moment.
"Funny you should phrase it that way."
***
Apollos were old craft, not very durable but otherwise still balanced enough during their best years, they were considered obsolete by most forces now. Still, they were faster and more agile than their current pray, and carried a fair load of light weaponry capable of downing it handily enough.
The pilots were mercenary, and well acquainted with their craft, having flown them during enough combat engagements to adequately decorate the bows with both scorch marks and kill markers. They'd done fairly much anything, took up any job that paid well enough. Exactly who had wanted the crew and other occupants of that shuttle dead, they didn't know nor did they particularly care either. What counted was the pay, and the pay was good enough to justify the risks.
Up until then the shuttle had proven more nimble than they'd anticipated. Not as good as the fighters, but far better than any personnel hauler normally would be. A custom job then. Which didn't much matter either, because their sensors were certain she was unarmed. Which meant that they could close to a range unreasonable with any even lightly armed craft and simply pummel. While proving harder than they'd thought that particular tactic would be to perform, it was merely a matter of time. And that time was now.
The three fighters were spread in a staggered line, and the lead was a little forward of his wingmen. That's why his sensors caught the irregularity soonest. The gunmetal grey hull of their target had grown steadily larger since the chase's beginning, but few of them really regarded the pure visual with more than a cursory glance. Their attention was on their course plots, and the rendered holoimages that replaced the pure visual data under the faceplates of their helmets. When a part of the target's hull became unclear, blurring, and fluctuating oddly the leader of the small fighter squadron made a routine scroll through the visual modes, going through each spectrum and imaging mode in turn ... and stopping at the pure visual overlay.
For a moment, he just sat there, hands on the controls, and gaped. Then he zoomed the view to see whether his eyes _were_ playing tricks on him.
The zoom confirmed the impossibility of the image, and its reality. A man, tall, lean and broad shouldered, clad in a coat of dark scarlet, stood on the hull of the shuttle, next to an open airlock ... and held some sort of monstrous gun in one hand.
And then there was a brilliant flash of red light, spearing through space, headed by a small mote of sparkling glimmer. It slammed into, and through the fighter, leaving a hole of proportions adequate for one left by a gravitic AdvP warhead in the metalloy hull before exploding into a huge sphere of energy a few hundred meters in the craft's wake. One of the Apollos flying wing was shattered, literally, by the shockwave. The remaining one simply spiraled out of control when the 'pressure wave' effect smashed the cockpit and pilot into so much rapidly freezing red ooze.
Alucard turned back towards the airlock, manic grin still plastered on his face. Yes, this was quite a bit better than even the now-destroyed Jackal had been. He needed to remember to thank Walter for digging it up for him.
***
Tone just stared into space, eyebrow twitching rapidly. Then he shook his head. He'd seen some pretty amazing things with the Company, but this just plain took the cake. Of course, he'd never seen the things they used during the War, otherwise it would have been merely pretty damn amazing. He resolved never again to doubt anything his father told him, no matter how ridiculous it may seem at the time.
Griever just gave an appreciative whistle, with a "I _want_ one of those." following closely behind.
Integra kept smirking.
If you're wondering, the gun Walter scrounged up, somehow, for Alucard before they went to leave Manticore shows up in the manga Blame, as the weapon of the synth Sanakan (Killy's version is too small to be of appropriately badass image for Vlad, no?). But - One - it's Lostech in this world. - Two - it's been customized so that it doesn't have to draw on a power grid but can utilize whatever energy the wielder can channel into it instead.
Oh, and I decided to consider the possibility that the 'Judas' wasn't really taken care of. He's the one who hired the mercs in the Apollo fighters.
Ah, and the Apollos were taken from Freespace, if anyone cares.
Hmm, could someone direct me to a site that has the Hellsing songs' lyrics?
-Griever
I know, I know, I _really_ need to work on Act I and II.
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NOO HAABA WON CHIIZU HABAREISHOO
TEIKU MII WONA TOOKIN REBORYUUSHON
NOO HAABA WON CHIIZU HABAREISHOO
DHIBI FON DHI HABU WORIISUTAA~
SHUBIDUBIDU SHUBIDUBIDU DURUU
SHUBIDUBIDU SHUBIDUBIDU DURUU
English
Tell me the cool vibration
Living your fantasy
Tell me who, tell me surely, and the name
I'll be stunned, I'll be waiting
ghosts horror show
In a darken just say you love
Down, down, wish its just a revelation
Take me there, take me into a revolution
Down, down, listen to the vibration
Take me home and I'll look into return
OR
Tell me cool vibration
Live your fantasy
Tell me who, tell me surely, and the name
I'll be stunned, I'll be waiting
ghosts of horror show
And I don't care just say you love
Ah Down, down, won't you stay the night show?
Take me one, take me into a revolution
Down, down, wont you hear the vibration
Take me home and call me gold
Shine (End Theme)
I never really feel quite right
I don't know why, all I know is there's something wrong
Every time I look at you, you seem so alive
Tell me how do you do it, walk me through it
I'm following every footstep
Baby on your own you take a cautious step
Do you wanna give it up?
But all I want is for you to SHINE
Shine down on me
Shine on this life that's burning out
I say a lot of things sometimes that don't come out right
And I act like I don't know why
I guess a reaction is all I was looking for
You looked through me, you really knew me like no one has EVER looked before
Baby on your own you take a cautious step
Do you wanna give it up?
But all I want is for you to SHINE
Shine down on me
Shine on this life that's burning out
I know, I know, girl you got something
SHINE (shine it on to me)
Shine down on me (I wanna feel it)
Shine on this life that's burning out
Baby on your own you take a cautious step
Do you wanna give it up?
But all I want is for you to SHINE
Shine down on me (just show me something)
Shine on this life that's burning out (you give me something that I never
know)
Shine (it gonna kill me if you give something away)
Shine yeaaah (I wanna know what's going in on your mind)
Shine on this life that's burning out
drakensis
"I believe that forgiving the enemy is God's function. Ours is simply to arrange the meeting." - General H Norman Schwarzkopf
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Okay, I can work with those, but what I meant was the ones that get played during the episodes themselves as backing for various scenes. Like the one in the thirteenth when the camera starts to pan down on the locked up Tower in daylight. That sort of thing, you know?
-Griever
who needs to get back to ACT I instead of spending so much time on stuff that's scheduled for several years from now (if all goes well).
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