In Continuum.

Not a great many people get to see the fanboy side of me very often. I suppose the reason being is that there hasn't been a movie, for example, for me to go crazy over these days. A good franchise is hard to come by, and the recent disappointments in "three-quels", so to speak, have been in style in the worst way possible. Despite the availability of these films, it has been difficult on my part to reignite the flame that was there when The Lord of the Rings hit the theaters, and I doubt any movies in the future will do the same for me, save for maybe The Hobbit's release. Anyway, a little less than a year ago, I was introduced to the comic book series called Fables, and some of you may know just how crazy I've been with this particular series. I can't say that the level of fandom is the same as it was back in 2001, but let's just say that for a comic book to do such a thing for me, it is pretty damn close. Anyway, this is the best comic book series that I have ever read. Y The Last Man and The Sandman series have nothing on this fabulous world of love, sex, violence, mystery, fantasy, and epic battles. Everything that you love, every genre that is, can be found in this series. I love every inch of the books, is what I've been meaning to say.

Anyway, my quiet little celebration when the latest book in the series (Fables: The Dark Ages) came out was restricted mostly to Twitter entries in capital letters, a victory dance in my bedroom, and a small yelp of joy when I tore open the plastic wrapper outside of the comic shop. If you have ever desperately waited for a book to be released, which I am sure many of you have, then you know how the feeling is like. Anyway, I started reading that book throughout the day, on my trip from Bugis Junction to Temasek Poly, and then at Neptina's house afterwards. I must say that while it has been mostly filled with excitement, the gloomy and depressing turn that the series made has indeed affected me as a reader. That is not to say that the latest book suck though - it is brilliant, and probably one of the best in the series. It's just that this book represents one of those love/hate situations, because you hate what is happening to the plot and the characters, but it is such a brilliant story that you cannot help but love it. In a particularly depressing part of the book, we see the character Rose Red confessing her love to Boy Blue at his death bed, after his right arm has been amputated. I must say, though, that this part of the book probably moved me more than, say, Kay's horrible death.

It's just a pity how it all turned out for the character, you know, the way his love for someone else was never returned to him. Here's a little backstory: Boy Blue was part of the last defending soldier in the Homelands (where they were before they escaped to our world), and that was where he fell in love with the Red Riding Hood. Later on in the series, we realize that she has returned from the Homelands, and reunited with Boy Blue all over again. That is not until the witch that impersonated the Red Riding Hood revealed to Boy Blue that she isn't the real deal, and we also get to know that the original girl that he met was also a fake. Of course, for people out there who have not read the series before, it'd probably not make any sense at this point. But I suppose I just felt like writing for myself this time around, despite the majority of you being completely confused, save for Neptina who was the one that pointed the series out to me in the first place. Anyway, this character has always been the unlucky guy, you know, with not much luck in love. You can say the same about Pinocchio, whose body has been trapped as a 13 year old boy. But still, you can't help but root for Boy Blue because he's just such a great character from the series.

Initially, I never had much love for Boy Blue, though that is not to say that I despised him. I remember reading the stories and thinking to myself which character's death would affect me the most and the least. Jack's death is probably going to invite a celebration on my part, but apparently that hasn't happened yet. On the other hand, if someone like Frau Totenkinder was to die, I'd probably want to drop the series altogether (though not really). Boy Blue has always been the character in the middle, with a presence that doesn't have to be there for me to fully enjoy the series. That all changed until the latest book when Rose Red finally decided that it was time to tell Boy Blue that she does love him, and that she wanted to be with him at the end of all things. Yet, as you can read from the scanned parts of the comic below, Boy Blue did not return his love this time around despite confessing to her previously, because he has been hurt too many times before by her. I used to like Rose Red though, though her liking has been dropping steadily throughout the series. From an interesting feisty character, she has been reduced to a useless babysitter for the most part. However, her nature of always being attracted to the most interesting person around her hasn't changed, even unto the death of Boy Blue.

I just feel that this reflects a great many incidents I have heard of or experienced in life, you know. It doesn't even have to be dealing with a love relationship, but it could be relationships of any kind as well. As we constantly become gravitated towards different interests in our lives, it is inevitable that we are going to run out of interest sooner or later and lose steam. When you are always looking for the next best thing, you realize that you cannot possibly be happy in the long term, because you tend to be dissatisfied with what you've got. I'm sure a lot of you may know of people in our lives like that, social butterflies, the kind that flutters around a great many people, but never ever actually settling down with anybody. They had the breadth of friendship, but never the kind of depth that most of us experience, the lot of us that keep our friends close with a handful in our hands. These are the people that almost always end up alone, and it's just sad that it takes a death of somebody in the story for the other character to realize her childishness. Anyway, it broke my heart to read this part of the book, realizing that this beloved character, literally, doesn't get anything her desired till the very end in terms of love. I mean, how many people we know who deserves love, never gets it?

This isn't going to be a long entry, and I am still in the midst of re-reading the series all over again. I have finished the latest book, and I cannot wait for how it'd turn out in the next with Mr. Dark's presence (fucking bastard!). February is when the next book will be released, and I cannot wait. For now, I am going to re-read the following pages of the book, and see the similarities it shares with the film Closer, or at least that raw uncensored punch to the guts that I felt in both stories, anyway. If you guys have a chance, please go to the nearest library and borrow this series. I assure you that you will not regret it - it's just an awesome story from the first page till the last.