A Great/Terrible Story: Beauty and the Beast

     Hello everyone! How's it going? I recently saw a stage production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and it got me thinking (a terrible thing to do, no?). As I watched the familiar story unfold on stage, I realized how terrible of a message could be interpreted from it. Belle takes the cruel and misunderstood Beast, and turns him into a kind, caring, gentle creature, both capable and worthy of love. That's the way the movie (and musical) present it. Another way to look at it the story of the girl dating the jerk, and changing him for the better. The horror story of so many romantic comedies, it displays to children that it not only is a possible outcome of this, but it actually ends in a happily ever after.
     This kind of thing could be considered somewhat of a stretch, but sit down and actually think about it. The man locked her father away because he sought shelter from ravenous WOLVES. Maurice didn't want to be eaten alive, but in return he watches his daughter sacrifice herself for his freedom, and then fall in love with the creature. From his eyes, its a father watching his daughter date a guy that he knows is bad news, but as soon as he tries to do something about it, he gets locked in a looney bin. The other side of this story is that of the Beast, or rather, the ugly and misunderstood guy who gets the hot girl.
     Gaston is arguably Belle's best bet at a happy life: he's healthy, successful, competent, and definitely has good genetics. If it weren't for the Beasts' wealth to help stave off disease and early deaths, he is in no way a better choice for Belle (and yes, Belle is a strong independent woman who doesn't need a man, and got with the Beast only because she wanted to, and would've been fine on her own). Despite this, Belle plays the part of the hottest girl in school, the one who could have the choice of going to prom with whomever she chooses, but she turns down the captain of the football team to go with the chubby and under-groomed geek from her pottery class. I'm sure things like this have happened in real life, and I'm not saying that this sort of thing is impossible, but I am saying that it's all kinds of unlikely. Going even further, the guy doesn't immediately open up, and the girl has to draw him out of his shell, after which they tear it up on the dance floor, fall in love, and live happily ever after.
     Sure, the message of The Beauty and the Beast has a multitude of good sides, like how love is something that goes past appearances, or that love can bring even the most wretched of us all into the light. In the end, a story says what you want it to say, just realize that Belle got lucky with the Beast being under a spell, and not an actual monster, and the Beast had an ENTIRE CASTLE OF PEOPLE pulling for him, and even then he barely landed that love plane.

Why Yu-Gi-Oh! Is Some Serious Stuff

      Hey everybody! Welcome to March, we've finally defeated the hellish month known more commonly as February, and have now to endure the turbulent transition between Winter and Spring. As much as I could go on about the seasons and all that that encompasses, I've got something else I'd like to talk about. Yu-Gi-Oh.
       Yes, you read that right. This week, we're talking about children card games and it's respective television show (and manga). Actually, the parentheses in that sentence have the more appropriate qualifier for this post. The anime (or cartoon show) for Yu-Gi-Oh! is pretty ridiculous. Granted, it is difficult to make a trading card game seem serious, but there are many better ways than what 4Kids thought would work. The first thing we need to establish about the actual Yu-Gi-Oh! series for this discussion is my actual point: While a children's card game is an arguably insignificant or unimportant thing in the eyes of the world, the game Duel Monsters (the in-show/in-book name for the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game) is absolutely not meant for children, and isn't even really a game.
     That being said, holy crap is Yugi messed up. In the first story of the manga, he gets picked on by his classmates, Joey and Tristan. They bully him about liking puzzles and games, steal a piece of his solid gold Millennium Puzzle, and throw it into the school's pool. Seeing this as an opportunity, an upperclassman beats the sweet loving crap out of Joey and Tristan, and then tells Yugi he did it for him. Yugi tries to defend the pair, but gets beaten up himself, after which the upperclassman tells Yugi he owes him $1600 for beating up Joey and Tristan, and if he doesn't pay, he'll stab him with a knife (chapter one, ladies and gentlemen). That night, while trying to figure out how to conjure up the money for the bully, Yugi distracts himself by working on the Millennium Puzzle. The task is suddenly easy that night, and he completes it, after Joey brings back the missing piece. Yugi's grandfather, having been told about the situation by Joey, sneaks the money into Yugi's backpack. The Puzzle is completed, and this high school boy becomes possessed by the spirit of an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. This spirit calls the bully (we'll call him Bob) to the school at night, and challenges him to a game. Bob and Yugi take turns placing the money on their hands and stabbing it with Bob's knife, taking whatever bills they manage to pierce. Suddenly, Bob's greed is out of control, and he can barely keep his knife hand in check. Realizing he's going to stab straight through his hand, Bob attacks Yugi with the knife. Yugi fly 20 feet in the air, and curses Bob with "Visions of Avarice," causing him to see trash and leaves as cash. And we never know if this goes away. It's highly likely that Bob is still a raving lunatic in the streets of Domino City, gather scraps of trash because he thinks it cold hard cash.
     There are several other points that seem important to mention, such as the repeated hospitalization of Yugi's grandfather, the fact that Yugi sent his rival into coma because he lost a card game, the fact that Pegasus (the villain of the Duelist Kingdom arch) forces a man to commit suicide with magical powers, and has his magical eye. Ripped. Out. So yes, the Yu-Gi-Oh! television show in America is childish and silly, but the same simply cannot be said of the manga. The first book alone is just so, so dark.