Arbitrary crap of the week: Dragon Age and Taylor Swift

Some spoilers for the game Dragon Age: Origins lay ahead.

Right, I just finished my first playthrough of DA:O for PS3 (it’s pretty multifaceted with lots and lots of different endings, as well as beginnings, or origins) and ended up with one of the best possible endings; my female human noble, Tuscany Cousland (they gave me the surname, I picked a fanciful first name to go with it) became a great rogue and fighter and announced at the Landsmeet that Alistair, her co-fighter, companion and boyfriend (and secret illegitimate heir to the throne and – I love this – ‘royal bastard’, literally), would be king and she would rule alongside him (cue ‘:O’ faces from everyone? No? It would’ve been an even better cutscene if they panned to everyone’s faces when Tuskers announced that). Aside from, and as a result of, the whole bummer dark ritual and everything, they both survived and got married and yay. I kind of fell in love with Alistair along the way (this is not uncommon…there are many fan clubs all over the internet for this game character, expertly voiced by the Scottish (but you wouldn’t know it) actor Steve Valentine), eventually realising that personality-wise he essentially IS my boyfriend (yay!), which was a pretty happy revelation for me.

ANYWAY. I digress, as usual. I then put my iPod on and Tay-Tay Swift is crooning ‘Long Live’ and oh the similarities between this song and the game if you take most of it literally instead of figuratively as its intended, and especially if you play as a female human noble who marries Alistair. I’m definitely reaching a little in places (I’m reaching so hard in this whole post that my shoulder is dislocating), and I doubt Ms Swift is a fan of RPGs (I’m only a fan of RPGs with great stories, to be honest, and usually only Western ones…I played Riviera: The Promised Land, and that’s the only JRPG I’ve ever kind of liked), as she’s never said so and it would help her ‘everygirl’ shtick (or, real personality? :p) to admit to loving a bit of gaming, so she wouldn’t hide it. That said, she would totally fall in love with Alistair as well. And then write a song about it. Or maybe she already has:

Song of the week: SNSD-Hoot

This week’s honour has to go to my alarm clock song (the intro up until the ‘Go! Go! Go!’ part (not the James Bond-esque intro in the video, the actual song intro) and probably favourite song by these ladies. Despite myself, I’ve got quite into SNSD in the last year. They’re a Korean girlband who go officially by the name Girls’ Generation globally, and are called So Nyuh Shi Dae in their native country (along with Shoujo Jidai in Japan; both of these mean ‘Girls’ Generation’, although SNSD is arguably closer to, um, ‘maiden era’. Let’s do this, fair maidens!). I should hate girl groups who seem to serve to titillate those of the heterosexual male persuasion. I should hate formulaic, manufactured pop music. I usually do. But SNSD got me interested. They’re good dancers and competent singers who come out with highly listenable music, and based on their many, many variety shows, they’re great people with interesting personalities. Some more than others, though :p

I personally love Hyoyeon, the band’s resident ‘Dancing Queen’ (although she doesn’t get a chance here, or even often nowadays, to show off just how powerful her dancing skills can be), who has a youthful, jokey personality and can dance like nobody’s business. She’s the one with straight blonde hair in the video (in the lift scenes). The dude at the beginning and end is from Super Junior, more commonly realised as ‘Shoopa Joonya’ (I’m not making fun of Korean pronunciation – my Korean pronunciation sucks – I’m just stating how they say it), a labelmate boy band. I’ve never got into them as, while they have some catchy songs, some of their songs are downright bad. One involving a subgroup of some of their members (they originally had twelve members…) hinges on the line ‘we are wearing our pyjamas’. Oh), and he doesn’t really seem to do much in the video. Missed opportunity for a stroyline, there.

The chorus basically translates as:
Because of you my heart wears armour (metaphor love)
Now I’m fighting back
Your arrows are trouble, trouble, trouble
You aimed them at me
And you shoot, shoot, shoot
And I hoot, hoot, hoot
I’m scarred by your words soaked in poison (<3)
I gave you a second chance, chance
You’re definitely trouble, trouble, trouble
You waited for the right time
You shoot, shoot, shoot
I hoot, hoot, hoot

The way I see it, she’s definitely hurt by this guy and his ways and isn’t denying that, but at the same time is trying to rise above it and laugh at his pathetic antics (‘hoot’ being onomatopoeic). It’s not the most powerful lyric in the world, but it gets its point across well and has some nice little metaphors.

Ok, so SNSD aren’t really one for intelligent, insightful lyrics*, but who cares? They’re pure fun.

* Take this generation-defining piece of pathos delivered by the very much English-speaking Korean-American Jessica Jung in the cheerleader-styled ‘Oh!’:

‘tell me boy boy love it it it it it ah’

Amazing.

/I also like the part in the Hoot individual videos where Jessica stops to sneeze, and the part where a bug flies in her face. This shooting was perhaps a little rushed, no?