Yikes…hello! It’s been a while. I promise I’m not dead–just very busy. Retaking the GRE, occasionally studying for level 2 of the JLPT, and working on grad school applications and my visual portfolio…plus playing catch-up at work this week because I was sick and out of the office for two days…I haven’t had a lot of time to myself lately.
I did begin some work on reorganizing some aspects of the site, and my Designy Sense (meant to sound like Spidey-Sense…pardon me, it’s been a long week) is really tingling. One thing that’s been bugging me for months is that the Mac and PC versions of the same fonts behave differently, so because of the differences in Verdana between the Mac and PC, the navigation is totally wrong on the Mac.
I’m almost tempted to attempt another redesign and try to stick it in my portfolio, though there’s the whole constraint of “pretty portfolio site” =/= “caters to all users.” Eh, we’ll see. I really wish I were a better web developer, so I could generate the content dynamically and not have to change over 50 separate HTML pages individually (did you notice that the copyright statement still says 2007? yeah…). I like to do it all myself and not rely on some generic CMS that dictates the site’s layout, too.
And I am seriously behind on my e-mails. I’m really sorry about that.
Okay, something related to the show: I was rewatching episode 1 (I created my own DVDs of the show thanks to iDVD on the Mac, which rocks) and picked up on something during the rhyme-in-runes that Alomar shows Ren.
Thirteen Treasures of Ancient Time
Thirteen Lessons of Rule in Rhyme
“Lessons of Rule.” Once that phrase registered for me, it immediately brought to mind this article, and specifically, this quote:
“Sailing in a vessel called the Wraith, Ren tries to locate “the Thirteen Treasures of Rule,” which are qualities such as perseverance, strength, grace, generosity, kindness. They are, said Kirschner, the qualities that will make Ren more qualified to take over his father’s position as king of Octopon.
Kirschner sees the story as a mirror of life and the search for the power that lies within a person.
“It’s an action-adventure that’s certainly a swashbuckler,” said Kirschner. “The story is about a boy who’s thrown into a situation beyond his control: He has to bring back the Thirteen Treasures of Rule. At the end of the story, Northern Wind touches him – and it’s his father’s voice – saying, `Come home.’ This amazing journey was not to collect these treasures, but it was what they signified. He moves that much closer to being a true ruler with the qualities it takes to preside over a people.”
I’m not sure how many of you ever did happen to see that article, but it’s a rather telling one–that quote in particular.
Hopefully I’ll post again this year, and I hope you all have a great weekend!
That’s pretty interesting… To be honest I never thought that deeply about it before, although I did like the ‘mythology’ or ‘epic’ aspects of the show. The Dark Dweller being this all powerful evil, unlikely people need to work together to defeat it, that sort of thing.
I can see different noble traits to go with treasure now that I think about it. Ren gains the first through courage, the second through empathy, fighting for the Monkey Birds. He gets the fourth by giving the healing flower to that bowl-guy, as a form of sacrifice. Hmmm…
That is interesting.
perhaps, that’s what was meant the whole time, and what it would ultimately have come to.
i think that’s what i believe, we may never know, but i believe, in some distant world, far beyond the sky, the oceans, that’s what the truth is.
Hello! Naught to do with your post, but I wanted to show you this. My friend and I decided to do some Pirates of Dark Water costumes for AnimeUSA last month. Wanted to share a pic or two with you (myself as Ren, my friend Tarissa as Tula):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/yuushi/podw2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/yuushi/podw1.jpg
Keep up the great work with the site!
Sell me copies of your Pirates of Darkwater DVDs.. =)
DarthPez–yeah! You could say he gets the 3rd through perseverance or strength of will (or just sheer physical strength), after making his way through the Andorian underworld.
And your point about unlikely forces working together to defeat the DarkDweller strikes on something I noticed recently. Bloth is just as afraid of the Dark Water as Ren is, or at least, just as aware of its deadly capacity. You see how scared he gets when Ren contaminates his ship with some of the Dark Water he collected for Cray in “A Drop of Darkness.” And even as early as “Victory,” he tells Mantus that once he has the Treasures he can control all the Dark Water in the world. So WHY does he pair up with Morpho, the DARKDWELLER’S SERVANT? Does his hatred of Ren really transcend his lust for power?
Dustin, those are great! Thank you for those links! What kind of reception did you get? Did a lot of people recognize the costumes?
Eric–they still need a bit of work, and I don’t have any cover or CD art to go with them. I just threw them together as a hasty personal thing. A lot of the bootleg sellers have put together a decent package, with CD labels and cover art, so it might be worth your while to investigate those (and most of them don’t charge more than $30 for the whole series).
Pirates of dark water is my Favourite cartoon show of ALL time.. i still remember that one afternoon where turn on the tv and saw the logo came up on screen and i thought.. “What happend to Tail Spin!!’ then watchin the first episode of PODW, i thought OMG this is better than Tail Spin!! sighhh watched it every week until the show just died… how i wish the maker would at least make a book for this.. i want to see all the treasures !!!
Thank you!
The costumes were actually pretty well-received. We got a lot of “Oh my God! You’re from The Pirates of Dark Water!” reactions, and quite a few pictures taken of us. I’m planning on re-doing the costume as it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted.
crap….wish they would complete the series. I wonder what the author had in mind for the PODW crew, before it was taken off the air. maybe someone should make a facebook-group and try to collect some money with the purpose of finally making the last episodes. try and email the author about it?lol:)