Mortal Instruments

I recently wrote a paper for my Senior Seminar class on blockbusters (if you haven't guessed I am a film major by now...surprise!!!) on young adult fiction series that become big blockbuster franchises (or attempt to and fail). One of the books I wrote about was Mortal Instruments and since then I began reading the series and all I can say is I am OBSESSED!!!! The writing is not amazing (which I can say with utmost certainty since I am also reading HP at the moment) but the story is great. It has everything I love, a young girl who thinks she is ordinary one day finds out not only is she special but she is the most special of the special, what could be better! Not to mention a teen romance which sounds cliche but throw the fact that they end up to be related (and then later find out they are not though I am not that far I am just bad with spoilers) it makes for an intriguing story. When I first did research for my paper I thought the concept was dumb, half angles who draw tattoos on themselves for power, but oh was I wrong. Perhaps after I will read Divergence because that synopsis sounds super dumb, maybe it will be the same situation. Anyway I can hardly wait for the movie, hopefully they wont screw it up and luckily there is a sixth book still to come though not for over a year. I don't think I can wait that long. What ever will I do in between. Perhaps read the prequel series Infernal Devices or Beautiful Creatures or I suppose since I already said I would, Divergence. I am gonna be so said when the day comes that I am too old for young adult fiction. I do not care if I am 21, I still think it is some of the best stroytelling. Perhaps the fact that these stories so easily translate into films is what I love about them. Or perhaps its because I so desperately want to wake up one morning and be told that even though I have believed I was ordinary all these years, really I am extraordinary and special. I mean isn't that what we all really want?

13 Great Fictional Witches

I have always loved witches. Not the satan worshiping kind but the good kind, like Glinda! Seeing as halloween in just around the corner, here is my list of my top 13 favorite witches of all time!!!

#13: Louise Miller

Where she is from: Teen Witch

Why I love her: Who wouldn't want to be told by some crazy psychic that you are actually a powerful witch reincarnated? Plus if I was given magical powers I would probably use them to become popular and make the cutest boy in school fall in love with me too!

#12: Sarah Bailey

Where she is from: The Craft

Why I love her: Besides being a total badass, Sarah had some kick ass powers. My favorite though would have to be her ability to 'glamour' or change her appearance at will. After seeing this movie for the first time I spent more time than I probably should have trying to change the color of my hair just by thinking about it. She also has some other cool powers, like being able to conjure the elements and take out the three bad guys all on her own. 

#11: Sally and Gillian Owens

Where they are from: Practical Magic 

Why I love them: First of all Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are hotties! While the power to bring back the dead is a bit creepy, its still pretty awesome that they can do it. The whole, the men you love will die young, thing was a bit of a turn off though. 

#10: Cassie Hughes

Where she is from: Hex

Why I love her: She is british and her son (who grew up to be a teenager in two seasons) was super hot, enough said! Also Christina Cole, who plays Cassie, also played a Witch (kinda, she was an alien who was mistaken for a witch) on Doctor Who!

#9: The Sanderson Sisters

Where they are from: Hocus Pocus

Why I love them: Ok so maybe these witches are not necessarily good but hey you gotta still love them. There reaction to the modern world is down right hilarious, it almost makes it hard to find them scary. Besides they sing a lot and there is nothing better then singing witches! Not to mention for three hundred year old witches from Salem, they look pretty good!

#8: Wendy

Where she is from: Casper Meets Wendy 

Why I love her: Besides being extremely adorable, she got to hang out with casper, who would be on the top on my favorite ghosts list (perhaps I will make that next!). Plus her red jumper is just darling! This is also my favorite Casper movie because the first one is just insanely sad (and I hate Christina Ricci) and I don't even remember the second one. 

#8: Twitches

Where they are from: Twitches (duh!!!)

Why I love them:  They are twin witches..twitches!!! Get it!!! Also they defeated the big bad darkness when they were only a few hours old, if that is not bad ass I don't know what is. I also like that unlike every other witch on this list, they are from an different dimension (well at least the only ones so far!) 

#7: Bonnie Bennett

Where she is from: The Vampire Diaries

Why I love her: This witch has to deal with Vampire shenanigans on a daily bases. Coming from a long line of witches, she always seems to be able to solve the problems her Vamp friends get in to!

#6: Willow Rosenberg

Where she is from: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Why I love her: Besides the fact that she has red hair, cause I love red hair, you can't deny she is awesome! Even though she went evil for a bit in the 5th season, she is innocent in an adorable kind of way. Plus she can do some seriously cool magic and she is Jewish (represent!!!). 

#5: Alex Russo

Where she is from: Wizards Of Waverly Place

Why I love her: Ok so technically she is a Wizard but that is basically the same thing. She is also super snarky and keeps her want him her boot which I would totally do if I was a witch. 

#4: Sabrina Spellman

Where she is from: Sabrina The Teenage Witch

Why I love her: My first witchy love! I watched Sabrina back when it was still on air and I was addicted! I even named my dog Sabrina. Plus I always wanted to visit the other realm, unfortunately my linen closet was not also a portal. 

#3: Marnie Piper 

Where she is from: Halloweentown (1-4)

Why I love Her: "Halloween is cool!" You tell 'em Marnie! By far my favorite DCOMs, these films are a quintessential part of my October.  Marnie not only saves Halloweentown after only knowing she is a Witch for like 2 hours but also opens the portal and saves everyone again (and again and again). I met Kimberly J Brown once at a Halloween carnival or charity, it made my life! Gotta love Agatha Cromwell while we are on it too! 

#2: Hermione Granger

Where she is from: Harry Potter

Why I love her: Would any list of the top fictional witches really be complete without ms. Granger. The smartest witch of her age, Hermione always has a clever plan and a trick up her sleave. Plus she is british, plus she marries Ron and is best friends with Harry...what else do you want?! Brains, beauty and a wand to boot. Can't say there aren't days (many days) when I wish I was Hermione!!!

#1: The Charmed Ones

Where they are from: Charmed

Why I love them: And rounding off our list are my all time favorite witches, the Charmed Ones. I have never been so obsessed with a show in my life as Charmed! I even used to play charmed when I was younger and pretend I was a witch (though I wont say exactly what age...). The show may have been cheesy and the effects might not of held up over time but they were sisters first and witches second which is what I always loved. Not to mention there awesome powers! I always liked that they had specific powers instead of just being able to do magic (too general for me). 

Halloween

Its my favorite time of year...HALLOWEEN!!! Even though Halloween is still a few weeks away, some of my favorite Halloween movies are already popping up on TV!!! I am going to justify my love for some of these movies by the fact that I grew up watching them because if Halloweentown came out now I would probably be too old to watch, though it is an AMAZING movie!!! The Halloweentown franchise and the two twitches movies are definitely up there on my favorite Halloween movie list. Hocus Pocus is also a must watch and we cant forget The Nightmare Before Christmas (the perfect movie for two different holidays!) Those are my staples but I am always switching between other favorites like Beetlejuice and Practical Magic. I also love Halloween tv specials. What could be better then your favorite television characters dressing up and getting into the Halloween spirit. Some of my favorites have got to be Modern Family, Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and any Disney Channel Halloween special (pretty much I watch a lot of Disney during October, but only during October) I am not sure exactly where my love of Halloween came from. Perhaps it is my love of the weird and strange ( guess I am liek Marnie Piper that way!) but Halloween movies and tv shows definitely helped!

Once Upon A Time Is Back!!!

It is that magical time of year when TV shows start up again and as well all know season premiers are usually epic. Once Upon A Time was no exception. I must say at first I was like ehhh ok w.e. normal episode where they show Storybrooke and the magical world in the past. The weird thing was they didnt show the fairy tale characters in the real world like they usually do. Of course then in the end turns out those characters never went to the real world and that was happening simultaneously which i thought was awesome but none of my friends were impressed by it. I mean I screamed but w.e. people. Anyway bored of writing but great episode, excited to see what is to come!

Fandom Support

I love this! Does it make me a nerd because I think its cute one fandom is being nice to another one? If it does then I will gladly be a nerd!!!

The Angels Take Manhattan

Well the wait is finally over. The angels have taken Manhattan and the Pond's have officially left the TARDIS. I may have to go back and rewatch because i spent the majority of my first screening of the episode clutching my pillow and screaming at the TV to stop. Never the less it was a great episode. I was a bit confused about who that collector guy was or how the hell River got there but who cares? I was too focused on the Ponds. I am not gonna write a whole review because honestly the whole thing was a blur but I did have some favorite parts! First off love the statue of liberty being an angel but I highly doubt there is ever a time someone is not looking at it so it didn't make sense. Didn't really care though cause it was awesome. Amy and Rory jumping was SOOOO sad, especially cause I was not sure if perhaps that was how they were gonna meet there end. In retrospect I gotta say though should have seen that ending coming. Like DUH they get zapped back in time. But why can't the Doctor go back to them when River can (cause she goes back to give Amy the book). Pretty much its just Moffat being a douch (sorry Moffat I do love you but come on). Now they will NEVER come back. I mean even Rose came back and se was stuck in a parallel universe. I would also like to say that I totally called that final seen with little Amelia. Maybe this is me being a pretentious film student but come on guys what else was it gonna be? The ducks...really? I do feel very sad now. IDK if I count the Pond's as my first companions. I started watching this show freshman year of college (I am now a senior YIKES) but I started with older episodes. In fact I think the first doctor I saw was Christopher Eccleston. I can't be sure but I think my first episode was The Empty Child. I actually got into Torchwood first, thanks to my friend Jasmine, and then went back to watch the Doctor Who cross over episodes and then got hooked. Either way I think I will consider Eleven and the Ponds my first because even though I did not see them first, they were the first ones I watched live and in order (cause I have never actually seen all of seasons 1-4 in order). So it is very sad for me to say goodbye them to my first companions. They were also my favorite (cause it deff wasn't Rose or Martha). It will be hard but hopefully this new companion will be good. Guess we will find out in 87 days...but whose counting. Ok some after thoughts or two really. One i cried. I didn't think I would cause I don't usually cry for movies or TV shows but I cried because it was just that sad. Second I also called the whole him erasing him self thing cause river mentioned she got off cause there was no record of the doctor. Just saying Moffat should hire me!

Hiding Horcruxes In Plain Site

There is no denying J.K. Rowling is a GENIUS. I love her so much and I think it has a lot to do with this hidden throw away lines she puts in her books, similar to Moffat's throw away lines in Doctor Who. Having seen majority of the movies before reading all the books, I had a unique perspective on things and was able to notice details others might have over looked (what can I say just call me Hermione Granger). I am sure I am not the first to notice this, though I have mentioned it to a few friends who were shocked by what I am about to tell you. We all know J.K Rowling likes to bring back insignificant things from early books and make then SUPER important, take Grindewald (mentioned in the first book on the back of Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog Card) or the Vanishing cabinet Harry hid in the second book which becomes the Death Eaters way into Hogwarts in the sixth book. I know in an interview J.K. Rowling mentioned how she thought it was funny no one noticed that the snake from the first book is actually Nagini, which isn't that funny cause its not super obvious. However these two hidden Horcuxes are! The first one is in the 5th book when everyone is helping to clean up Grimmauld Place. They are all cleaning out an old cabinet and there are a list of random things they find inside. Nothing to striking right. Except the fact that they find a gold locket that no one seems to be able to open. I feel on further inspection this one is a bit more obvious considering we later learn Mundungus went back and stole it from Grimmauld Place, among other things, but still pretty sneaky. This next one is actually my favorite and the one I think most people do not get. In the Half Blood Prince, Harry goes into the room of Requirement to hide the Prince's copy of Advance Potion Making. In order to remember where he left it, he uses an old Tiara to mark the spot. Thats right a Tiara also known as a diadem which turns out to have belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw. I am shocked more people did not notice this considering the Tiara was even mentioned in this book. Anyways perhaps I am underestimating people and its just my friends who are missing these details but I still thought it was pretty damn cool!!!