Monday, January 14, 2008

Re: Disney Souvenirs

So, she did in fact bring me a present from California, but it was a good deal. For far less than the amount she'd considered spending on a Samurai Sword, she got me two different swords (one I didn't have), two lances, a battle axe, two shields and a pretty cool-looking flail! It also had two horses, one of which was a necromanticly-enchanted skeletal horse. Talking about it that way, I'm amazed it all fit in her luggage.
Now, I do have one tiny question about Lego Castle set # 7009: The Final Joust. What is lego trying to communicate via this set? I've looked over their website, and I get the distinct opinion that the knights and undead are separate factions, apparently engaged in war with one another. Yet the little railing between the jousters implies this is a festive tournament, not a battle. Is this intended to represent the last social joust before the war started? Has lego assumed kids can't tell contests from battle, renn-fests from warfare? Perhaps their war involves very stratified codes of honor and allows for personal duels between generals to settle entire campaigns with a minimum of collateral damage? I wouldn't expect of of this from undead, but that may just be my own bigoted assumptions about skeletons and necromancers.

Whatever the answer is, I think this little set is pretty cool gift. Far better than Donald Duck's Katana.

3 comments:

X said...

They're like Republicans and Democrats. The media paints them as opposing forces engaged in an epic philosophical battle battle, yet the whole affair is strictly choreographed, and like the epic battles of knights of old, while the players point the lance at each other, the peasants end up getting the shaft.

X said...

Note the "Good King" of the "Western Kingdom", and the "Evil Wizard" of the "barren wastelands to the East".

Yeah, real subtle.

rbbergstrom said...

I assumed that was a Tolkien reference.