Seriously Geeky Sundays: Celebration Time!

Hello dear readers and welcome to another Seriously Geeky Sunday! Today we are celebrating celebrations (not the chocolates, although they are also good), so why not join me for this party filled post!

I think there are lots of things in the geek world worthy of celebration, and lots of fun fictional celebrations that stick in the mind, so I was really happy to see this theme come up and am extremely grateful to Heather at Just Geeking By for organising the whole thing!

So let’s commence celebrations by answering the questions shall we?

What is your favourite celebration scene from a fandom?

Kaiji and his friends have a beer – Kaiji

I won’t say too much about this scene because spoilers, but there is a scene in the anime series Kaiji where the protagonist and a few of his unfortunate associates go out for a beer. That is really all that happens in the scene, but it is a simple celebration for a momentous occasion as they regain their freedom. When Kaiji, beer in hand, gives a big grin and thumbs up to the camera you get a massive sense of joy after the terrible and harrowing journey you have been on with him.

Which character’s birthday was the most memorable?

Bilbo Baggins’ Eleventy-First Birthday – Lord of the Rings

I’ve already written about this scene as part of Seriously Geeky Sundays, but I’m writing about it again as it is the honest answer to this question! Bilbo’s party is a huge celebration to which half of the Shire had been invited (“the other half turned up anyway”), and featured masses of food, drink and magical fireworks, and was basically a hobbits’ dream come true! It is also the start of the sinister events which lead to the real meat of the story. It is quite simply an epic celebration to start a truly epic story!

What does celebration mean to you as a fan?

Probably the biggest way in which I celebrate fandoms is by attending events devoted to them and being part of the communities that surround them. The best example of this is probably the annual film festival Scotland Loves Anime which I attend without fail. I’m not the most social person and haven’t really ever met anyone else through the festival, but there is an unspoken air of celebration when we go in for the first film each year – and lots of polite nods with the other regulars as I take my favoured seat. There are lots of other examples too, like the Final Fantasy concert event Distant Worlds, and various video game events. What it really is, is a coming together of people with a shared love of one particular thing, and even if you don’t get that involved with other people, you still get a sense of belonging that perhaps you don’t get that much going about your daily life!

What was the last fandom related achievement or milestone you celebrated?

Completing My First Ever Resident Evil Game

I’ve written about Resident Evil multiple times here on Shoot the Rookie but it was only recently that I actually played through one of the games myself. I’m planning an article on it later in the month so I won’t say too much, but I was super proud of myself when I completed Resident Evil Zero recently, as I had previously thought I wouldn’t be able to play any survival horror games due to a combination of fear and lack of skill. I was delighted to prove myself wrong and open up a whole new genre of gaming for myself in the process!

Have you ever had/been to a fandom themed celebration?

Yes several, but one in particular sticks in the mind. Whilst at university I discovered Tekken thanks to a friend of mine, and for fun we decided to turn our mutual love of the series into a fancy dress party to celebrate our birthdays which happened to be quite near each other. On the night we had a totally awesome array of different Tekken characters represented, with me dressed as Julia Chang and my friend as Anna Williams. We had Hwoarang, Jin, Asuka, Xiaoyu, Angel (I think) and others, as well as an extraordinarily impressive Devil Jin. We spent all night playing winner-stays-on Tekken and drinking inadvisable amounts of booze. It was great! As a side note, that was not the only fandom based fancy dress party I had whilst at university, having also had a secret CSI themed party organised for me where we all wore white shirts and sunglasses whilst drinking beer laced with green food colouring out of test tubes. Good times!

Do you celebrate any important pop culture dates such as movie or video game release anniversaries?

Ok so the answer to this is no. There are no particular dates I celebrate annually related to any of my fandoms. This year however I did take part in the Super Mario Multiverse, arranged and hosted by the Well Red Mage, which just so happened to fall on Mario Day (March 10th). A group of writers were invited to write about a Mario game of their choosing in an effort to get all games from the series covered. I went a bit off-topic and wrote about Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and it was awesome to be part of such a massive celebration of such an iconic series.

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So that is that – my ultimate celebration of celebrations! I hope you’ll agree that there is a lot to celebrate in the world of geekdom. Are there any fictional (or real world) celebrations that particularly stand out for you? Let me know below in comments and make sure you check out all the other entries over at Just Geeking By!

Thanks for reading,

Pix1001 x