Edison's Blog

  In "Frozen" (the first film), the main protagonist Anna seeks to save her city of Arendelle from a brutal winter by reconnecting with her sister Elsa, the one responsible for causing this winter. Anna and Elsa have had a fragmented relationship for most of their lives, and this led to their eventual separation. In the beginning of the film, their relationship is never classified as love, rather as familial relation that allows Anna access to the Elsa's prestigious life. The actual "true love", as we see, is between Anna and Hans, where the two get engaged very quickly after meeting.  Later on, Anna meets Kristoff, who helps Anna travel to the mountains to talk to her sister. After a clash between sisters, Elsa accidentally freezes Anna's heart, an injury which can only be cured by an act of true love. Anna, still believing that Hans truly loves her, requests a kiss from him to cure her, only to discover that Hans never loved her at all, rather used her as ...

  "The Little Mermaid" is a classic Disney princess film, in which a mermaid named Ariel falls in love with Prince Eric, and Eric falls in love with Ariel and her beautiful singing voice. In an attempt to become closer to Prince Eric and escape sea life, Ariel makes a deal with a witch named Ursula to become human for three days. Within those three days, Ariel must recieve a kiss from Eric or turn back into a mermaid and belong to Ursula forever. Lots of controversy has sparked from this movie, as it attends to very old-school and non-progressive views of gender roles and beauty standards. Many are offput by the general plot - a sixteen-year-old girl seeking a man's love, and then being put in a situation where she can only be saved by the man's kiss. Others are disturbed by the body image messages that the movie sends, particularly the huge difference in percieved attractiveness between the villains and the protagonists. While Prince Eric, Ariel, and the King are all...

In class, we read "The Snow Queen", by Hans Christian Andersen, in which the main characters Kay and Gerda love each other, but as if they were brother and sister, or very close friends. This friendly love is shown throughout most of the story, however toward the end of the story that line begins to get blurred, as they engage in many displays of affection including hand-holding and kissing. I wanted to expand on the differences between romantic love and friendship love. In most forms of media (and consequently, in real life), the initial stages of romantic love can typically be characterized by physical attraction, based on the superficial features of one's body. We saw this in Bambi, when the two skunks appear to fall in love without even saying a single word to each other. On the other hand, friendship love is almost always characterized by emotional attraction, usually to one's personality traits or experiences. This is the kind of love we see in most PBS Kids sho...

  SpongeBob SquarePants is a Nickelodeon TV show about aquatic creatures who live very human lives, but in an underwater world known as Bikini Bottom. The show first aired its pilot episode, "Help Wanted", in 1999. In "Help Wanted", the main character, SpongeBob SquarePants, gets hired at the local fast food establishment called "The Krusty Krab" after saving the workers from a mob of anchovies. This episode sets the scene for the entire SpongeBob universe. The creator of the show, Stephen Hillenburg, was a marine biologist who worked as an educator before pursuing his true dream of becoming an animator/artist. Hillenburg's first iteration of SpongeBob came in 1994 when he got the idea to create a show where sea creatures live in a small town and behave more like humans that fish. He borrowed the character named "Bob the Sponge" from the show The Intertidal Zone  and further developed it into the SpongeBob we know today. Hillenburg's visi...

"Happily ever after" is a phrase that seems to be thrown around in almost every children's story or fairy tale. In fact, I had known this phrase way before I became fluent in English, simply from hearing it so many times. For my whole life, I had a general sense of its meaning: The characters involved end their story at the same time that I see them end it, and they continue some sort of pseudo-existence in a happy state, doing whatever they were doing at the very end of their story. However, I am now tasked with defining "happily ever after" as I see it, so let's break it down. Of course, in a fantastical world, characters may truly be able to achieve a state of never-ending happiness. As I wrote about previously, happiness derives from having purpose in life, rather than a single experience or action. I believe that even in a fairy tale, this principle still holds. For example, if the plot of a fairy tale involves two characters falling in love, the "...

When the pandemic started, I was not anxious, stressed, or depressed. Rather, I was somewhat relieved. Senior year was shaping up to be an incredibly busy time, and even after getting into Duke ED it felt like second semester was dragging, with no point in going to school or putting effort into my extracurriculars. Quarantine sort of gave me the break that I had long desired, and I took full advantage of that. However, I quickly became extremely bored at home. Unlike most of Gen Z during the pandemic, I did not turn to binge watching my favorite Netflix classics, get hooked into Tiger King, or endulge in an entire series of movies. I have never been a big movie person; I tend not to seek emotional rollercoasters or unpredictable storylines when I attempt to relax. I like to be in control of my story, not let the story control me. Therefore, video games became my go-to quarantine relaxation activity. Minecraft had seen a resurgence on YouTube earlier in 2018/2019, which pushed many play...