| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Berkthgar |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 03:02:27
Growing up playing the legend of zelda games, or reading forgotten realms novels?
Personally, I cry every time i hear the ocarina of time soundtrack, it is too beautiful for words.
Moreover, I also cry every time I remember a moment in the realms that I hold dear to me.
What do you guys think? |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Entromancer |
Posted - 06 May 2015 : 19:35:53
The final book in King's Dark Tower cycle, The Dark Tower really got me teary. Especially the segments "In This Haze of Green and Gold" and "The White Lands of Empathica." In the Malazan series, Beak, Harlow's story, Cutter and Challice, in Toll the Hounds. In Dust of Dreams, the Snake and the hobbling. The Crippled God: Tavore, Karsa and Munung.
I get nostalgic for the Paths of Darkness block of Salvatore novels. I was reading those during my semesters of organic chemistry...those were some of my favorite undergrad semesters. |
| DandelionClock |
Posted - 05 May 2015 : 17:21:44
I know it's not the theme of posts so far, but how about smells?
They hit without warning and set of a film in my head. Good ones (old carpets and coffee - my grandparents' house; random stuff like aniseed (the tea I got when I was sick). The smell of watered down cocoa in huge cans, and buns with marmelade, that filled the hall during breakfast time in the youth hostels where I spent summer camps. The church smells -Catholic, if you must know... every catholic knows what I am talking about. The smell of my childhood library (old wood, sandstone flagstones, too much sun for the books, and the book smell...) and so on and so on. Bad ones too, like people with alcohol on their breath, or desinfactant, or hospitals, or the sting of mould in cellars or appartments, ...)
Or random little sounds. Like swallows chirping, or like a bike sounds when it has those clicking pearls on the spokes like we put them on our bikes when we were kids.
Random stuff. My first walkman (a garishly yellow sony). Hearing a song with the DJ talking in the middle in my mind - like he did on my tape all those years ago, even if spotify hasn't got that interruption, and tape and probably even DJ are long gone. Trying to remember how that odd slime felt that was sold in buckets in the 80ties and that all my friends got, but not me, and then I was allowed to dunk my hand into my friend's bucket. (80ties childhoods could be weird!) Those glow toys that aren't sold anymore, and how I stared mine down every evening for days after I got it.
I always think nostalgia is longing for the banal things of your past. People even get nostalgic after things they didn't like especially much back then. Insignificant stuff. I think it's a form of gaining control of the past; it can't harm us anymore, and we can modell it to a degree, and this is how we get comfortable with a part of our past.
Otherwise, I was too old when video games became available to me, so I'm not yet nostalgic for them, especially since the legacy of Baldur's Gate lives on into the present... ;) So... more books. AND TV series! Not movies, TV series - the way they aged, the musical themes, etc pp... |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 03 May 2015 : 08:19:18
There are a couple of things really.
I remember in 1983 being angry to the point of tears when Aleena died because of Bargle...I've carried a love-hatred of Bargle since that moment.
Living in Bland County VA gave me a profound sadness when the trees of Solace burned because it was hard for me to wrap my head around such majestic trees being destroyed. I also had tears fill my eyes when Sturm died, tears of anger anyway. They should have at least allowed him a small fight!
First time opening up the Old Grey Box was a trip through a magical world of wonder that I still remember clearly. Too many times my wife has had to look under/over/around the edges of the books from that box to get eye contact with me! On page after page it enthralled me, but a character I've often looked back to is Aubaerus the Ravenmaster...someone who still controls many of the goings on in my home FR.
Anything that reminds me of these things gets my attention.
|
| Berkthgar |
Posted - 03 May 2015 : 06:54:03
The story of guen really tears at my heartstrings. Such a beautiful character.
|
| mastermustard |
Posted - 02 May 2015 : 04:38:49
I feel a combination of those warm fuzzies and a melancholic longing for the past when I play the original Kingdom Hearts on the ps2. The game is whimsical and dream-like in a way that consistently evokes very profound (and nostalgic) sense of childlike wonder. Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask were a bit before my time - I wasn't really old enough to appreciate complex narratives in games until around 2002-2004 in elementary school. I do have fond memories of playing The Minish Cap and Windwaker, though they are mostly due to the friends that I was playing them with rather than the games themselves.
I can't say that FR novels give me a sense of nostalgia, though I love them to death. |
| Rymac |
Posted - 26 Apr 2015 : 06:26:36
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
But what makes me the saddest and the most nostalgic? Reading about the ghost of Alusair Obarskyr. When I first encountered her, she was an off-hand mention in the Old Grey Box. I wondered whatever happened to the missing princess. Then I got to meet her in Crusade, and she was everything I had hoped she would be. A strong, independent woman who didn't care what anyone else thought of her. And best of all, she made her own way in the world. This was no wimpy princess that needed saving - this was a true hero!
And now she's gone - "Like a Candle in the wind" - a life we hardly knew, but one forced upon her by the cruel hand of fate. 
You know what I get Nostalgic for? All those people we never got to truly know, and now never will. Thats what I miss.
Right there with you Markustay. It would have been nice to see how the Steel Regent would have governed Cormyr. There was so much development in so many places that never led anywhere in the name of 4th edition. The missing lore that was never developed, that we never saw, teases us like the "Here ye be dragons" on the edges of maps of old. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 25 Apr 2015 : 17:32:23
As for Zelda, my first was 'A Link to the Past', and I still get all misty-eyed when I think about poor 'flute-boy' and his father.
As for The Realms, I miss the feel of the older products - the 'uncertain 3rd person' that drew me so hard into the setting in the first place. I felt as if we were learning about FR from people who have walked its lands, rather then some bland summation by a guy in a cubicle. It felt real.
But what makes me the saddest and the most nostalgic? Reading about the ghost of Alusair Obarskyr. When I first encountered her, she was an off-hand mention in the Old Grey Box. I wondered whatever happened to the missing princess. Then I got to meet her in Crusade, and she was everything I had hoped she would be. A strong, independent woman who didn't care what anyone else thought of her. And best of all, she made her own way in the world. This was no wimpy princess that needed saving - this was a true hero!
And now she's gone - "Like a Candle in the wind" - a life we hardly knew, but one forced upon her by the cruel hand of fate.
You know what I get Nostalgic for? All those people we never got to truly know, and now never will. Thats what I miss. |
| Berkthgar |
Posted - 25 Apr 2015 : 07:11:38
Beautiful story beast. Thanks for sharing |
| Artemas Entreri |
Posted - 24 Apr 2015 : 15:23:39
quote:
Originally posted by jordanz
The first Spellfire book. It just had a "right" feel for the lore and wonder of the realms. Shadril (was that her name?)
Shandril  |
| Rymac |
Posted - 24 Apr 2015 : 07:12:03
Reading anything out of the Old Grey Box, and FR4 The Magister. |
| jordanz |
Posted - 24 Apr 2015 : 05:01:55
The first Spellfire book. It just had a "right" feel for the lore and wonder of the realms. Shadril (was that her name?) had crossed paths with a lower to middling level adventuring party but I think she had to cut out on them. I remember a Dwarf praying to Clanggedin as he summoned some sort of mystical Axe to make his last stand against a horde of monsters.
There were so many cool snippets like that.
There was just such an innocence to it all....sigh |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 24 Apr 2015 : 02:50:02
Great story BEAST. That was almost as entertaining as reading the Crystal Shard itself!
-- George Krashos |
| BEAST |
Posted - 24 Apr 2015 : 01:12:30
I never could get into the game as a kid. My only real exposure to anything Realmsian was the first edition of the novel The Crystal Shard. I stumbled across it at a junior high book fair in the school library, and I have cherished ever since.
When I was little, pamphlet sales flyers were circulated about the student body advertising various books, and I almost always had to suffer as many of my fellow students bought all the books up while my parents made me do without. (We visited the city library occasionally, but they hardly had the access to new books that they do, nowadays.)
But in the 8th grade, a book fair introduced me to a bunch of flashy fantasy books, the DragonLance Chronicles, and a book with some serious-looking characters tracking something in the snow. I found the flames and decorative shrubbery on the covers of most the books too OTT for my liking. The snow scene was subdued and ominous, and I fancied it as somehow more grown up.
I found the book on a Monday, when one of my teachers allowed our whole class to leave our studies early and head down to the book fair instead. But I had no money, and I had to watch several titles fly right off the shelves before my eyes. As we left the library that day, I had a sinking feeling that my prized treasure would not last long, either.
I had no idea who this R.A. Salvatore person was. I had no idea that this dark elf character would go on to become such an icon. All I knew was that the book leapt out at me from the stacks as something special. It practically called to me.
And yet, I had to walk away from it.
That day after school, I told my mother about the book. I was ordinarily quite serious and droll, but this brief encounter with a book animated me like nothing else. She told me that she would speak with my father and see what she could do.
Day by day, another teacher would let class out early so we could go to the book fair, and each day I headed straight to just one book, torturing myself with that which I could not have. Day by day, I saw the stack on the shelf shrinking, and the supply in the cardboard boxes behind the shelving shrinking, as well. And day by day, I was practically dragged out of the library by other students so I could make it to the next class before the bell rang.
I was in honors classes at the time, so whenever I went home I was usually buried under homework and boring assigned reading. When I got home each day, I lost my sense of wonder and excitement, and settled for the daily grind of work.
But at the end of the week, on Friday morning, just before heading out the door for school, my mother surprised me. She handed me a few dollars of money and told me to spend it wisely. She told me to buy that book, if it was still available, and to get myself something else if I had any money left.
I was floored. This sort of thing never happened in my family. But here it was, happening to me!
I practically skipped into the front doors of the school and down the hallway to the library. And when I got there, I found the shelf location where the Shard had been located all week to be alarmingly empty. My book was sold out! I thought.
But upon seeing the downtrodden look on my face, the librarian came over and asked me what was wrong. When I told her, she suggested that we look for a copy of the book somewhere else on the shelves, as a lot of students had manhandled the books throughout the week.
And she found one of the last copies of it for me. I was so thrilled!
I remember being so happy with my haul, that I, nerdy teacher's pet and everything, barely paid any attention in any of my classes that day. I just wanted to take every opportunity I could to check out my book. Nothing else mattered.
With all this build-up, I actually got down to reading the book with the same sort of attention to detail that I used with all of my school reading. I analyzed it, and questioned it. I compared various passages to other passages, exploring perceived continuity gaffs, and sparking my curiosity as to open-ended possibilities. In short, I fell totally in love with it.
Later that semester, for my Reading Comprehension class, we were supposed to do an illustrated book report on a book of our choosing, covering various aspects of literary analysis along the way. Of course, I chose the Shard. And while I had known a little about comic books for years, I had actually discovered the geeky little joy of comic book annuals, with their encyclopedia-like articles on all the characters, places, and/or events of various series with a given comic property. I decided to prepare my book report just like one of those: a comic book annual.
But it didn't take long before I realized that all my attention to detail was actually getting in my way, and I probably would not be able to finish such a project in time. So I settled for a different book that I had read the previous year, and which I still remembered quite well. I quickly re-read Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown, and did my report on that, instead. (But I didn't completely abandon my D&D theme, though: I actually modeled a lot of my character illustrations directly off of the D&D cartoon from the '80s.)
The book report on this substitute book ended up being about 50 pages long, supposedly setting a new record for any assignment ever turned in to this particular teacher. (To this day, I swear that all of us students thought she looked exactly like Linda Evans from that old '80s soap opera Dynasty!) The book report was a hit, with several of my other teachers all getting wind of it through the teacher grapevine and subsequently complimenting me on it. I received numerous recommendations from teachers and students alike to go into comic book illustrating, and maybe even writing itself.
I told them, but nobody seemed interested in the truth: this report wasn't even on the book that I had really wanted to review, at all. It was just a relatively last-minute fill-in, which better fit my schedule. My book report could've, and should've, been even better!
In the years afterward, I found myself drowning under assigned reading and homework. Reading became a chore, even for a self-professed nerd. And I found very little time to spend on fun reading.
What little time I could muster, I spent it on re-reads of the Shard. I read it and read it and read it again, and again, and again. Part of this was because I found the book enchanting and mesmerizing. But part of it was also because I already viewed it with a sense of nostalgia, even as a teenager. RAS's first Realms novel was my escape from the humdrum of my real life. It was a familiar one, which I had practically memorized, word for word. It didn't matter to me that it didn't have the pretentious air of the stories that my teachers were requiring me to read. All that mattered was that it made me feel good to read it, and to imagine myself there alongside Drizzt, Bruenor, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, Regis, and Guenhwyvar, with the namesake breeze of Icewind Dale blowing in my ears.
I didn't go on to read any of the other Drizzt books until the late '90s, while one of my brothers was also a roommate, and he got the idea to buy several other RAS stories. It had never occurred to me to do such a thing, myself. For a decade, I had been content to just dwell on the one book.
I didn't move on to any other Realms works beyond the Drizzt books until the mid-2000s, as a way of seeing how Drizzt's tale fit into the overall scheme of Realmsian things. That effort is what brought me here to the 'Keep.
To this day, my battered, dogeared, highlighted, yellowing old paperback copy of The Crystal Shard remains my most hallowed possession--even more than my truck, and I'm a Texan, so that should really tell you something! |
| Xnella Moonblade-Thann |
Posted - 23 Apr 2015 : 23:13:02
When they announced the remakes for the Pokemon games (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire), I was excited. Watching the announcement videos with some of the gorgeous graphics on the 3DS from the game-play/cut-scenes and the music literally brought me to tears, as the older versions of Ruby and Sapphire were when I really got into the series hardcore. I felt like I was back in my freshman year of high school (which was the same year I discovered the Realms, oddly enough).
But I also get emotionally attached to Realms characters in books, and when they experience events, I get just as involved. Their tragedies and joys are just as gut-wrenching to me as if it was me that was experiencing the event in real life. I literally was distraught when I was reading Dream Spheres and Danilo told Arilyn that they were through...even though I knew the events that happened later in the book said otherwise (stupid me looking up spoilers before reading the book...)
And I have a few weird things with music and movies...I can listen to music scores and see the associated scenes from any movie that I've seen (like how I always associate Supermassive Black Hole by Muse as being the "Vampire Baseball song" in Twilight), and when I sing along to songs, I can always knock it out of the park (like the song I Won't Say I'm In Love from Hercules, Part of Your World from the Little Mermaid, and Reflection from Mulan, for example). My mother thinks it's associated with me supposedly being on the Autism Spectrum, but I just think it's just who/what I am...a geek/nerd!  |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 22 Apr 2015 : 16:30:10
I recalled something else nostalgic for me, though it's not game-related...
When I was 9, I discovered a particular magazine intended for a male audience.
The pictures in that magazine quite naturally got my attention. I was only 9, and had no clue about such things... I just knew that I really liked those pictures!
From then until I was about 12, I flipped thru that magazine many, many times. I didn't read the articles, though I did read the jokes and some of the blurbs (one of which mentioned a potential sequel to the movie ET -- this was 1983). I looked at every single page in that magazine.
And then, the magazine got lost in a move (that's the shorter, easier version of what happened).
Many years later, well into my 20's, I suddenly recalled that magazine. I couldn't recall the specific issue, but I remembered the cover of it. Using my burgeoning search fu talents (this predated the rise of Google, so I wasn't using Google-fu), I did some research and eventually figured out exactly which issue it was. Then I hit eBay and found a copy of it.
When it came in, that was some serious nostalgia... Cartoons, ads, articles, and of course the pictures -- just about every other page or so, I was like, "Oh, man, I had forgotten that! I remember it now!"
I flip thru that magazine every year or two, now, just for the nostalgia.  |
| Delwa |
Posted - 22 Apr 2015 : 03:11:44
What brings up feelings of nostalgia? Making a new character in Baldur's Gate. The Gummi Bears theme song. My dad's first edition hardback copies of Lord of the Rings, and the Rankin Bass Hobbit soundtrack. I don't have a lot of D&D or Realms related nostalgia simply because I didn't actually get an opportunity to play the pen and paper game until after college, so I've got a few years still until I'd call any tabletop/Realms memories "nostalgic."
The closest I get in that department is cracking open Homeland every now and then. It was the first Realms novel I ever read. |
| Artemas Entreri |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 19:52:57
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Caladan Brood
I *do* get a certain feeling when reading 2nd edition FR sourcebooks, particularly when it's about Shadowdale, Cormyr or the Moonsea region. I don't know what it is I'm feeling, it's part nostalgia, part...a sense of adventure I suppose, it just makes me long to be in a party and be a player, which I haven't been since...I don't know, 1995 or thereabouts.
There is a certain nostalgia in re-reading some of the older Realms sourcebooks.
And even Ravenloft! Just finished a re-read of VR's Guide to the Lich. Great stuff. |
| Berkthgar |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 18:45:41
Caladan, I understand your sense of adventure feeling. It makes me sad that I can't jump in the book and join them! The funny thing is that a lot of these characthers come from the mind of an Author! One person gave us so much joy and fun in these novels! |
| Berkthgar |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 18:43:50
I just downloaded the Audio Book for Vengeance of the Iron Dwarf! I am excited for this book! |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 16:37:40
quote:
Originally posted by Caladan Brood
I *do* get a certain feeling when reading 2nd edition FR sourcebooks, particularly when it's about Shadowdale, Cormyr or the Moonsea region. I don't know what it is I'm feeling, it's part nostalgia, part...a sense of adventure I suppose, it just makes me long to be in a party and be a player, which I haven't been since...I don't know, 1995 or thereabouts.
There is a certain nostalgia in re-reading some of the older Realms sourcebooks. I keep copies of Volo's Guide to Waterdeep and Volo's Guide to the North in my car for those odd occasions when I am stuck in the car with time to kill, and reading some of my favorite bits in there is definitely nostalgic. (Full disclosure: I lost my original copies in the fire, and it took a couple of tries to get copies in really good shape. I wound up with multiple copies, and decided that a couple would fit quite nicely in that little cubbyhole thing in the door)
I've been re-reading FR4 The Magister of late, as well, for similar reasons. |
| Caladan Brood |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 15:38:17
I *do* get a certain feeling when reading 2nd edition FR sourcebooks, particularly when it's about Shadowdale, Cormyr or the Moonsea region. I don't know what it is I'm feeling, it's part nostalgia, part...a sense of adventure I suppose, it just makes me long to be in a party and be a player, which I haven't been since...I don't know, 1995 or thereabouts. |
| VikingLegion |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 15:38:06
Sturm's and Flint's deaths were both very well done, but for me the scene that still kills me is the final exchange between Caramon and Raistlin. The whole sibling relationship and the intense love/hate they shared was so powerfully written. I can't read the line "Look Raist, bunnies" without getting a little choked up.
https://s.yimg.com/fz/api/res/1.2/w6Cgt9p3IlL_QweTd3UveA--/YXBwaWQ9c3JjaGRkO2g9NTcwO3E9OTU7dz04MDA-/http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs27/f/2008/083/b/6/Look_Raist__bunnies_by_Asthenie.jpg |
| Arcanus |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 14:26:55
Flint's death did for me! The whole scene was very well written. I think it's the only time I have been genuinely moved by a book. Maybe it was my young age or the fact that Dragonlance was my first glimpse into D&D novels. Whatever it was, it is a treasured memory. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 14:11:17
quote:
Originally posted by Diffan
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Diffan
As for novels, when Sturm died in Dragons of Winter Night and Wulfgar's death at the hands of the Yochol both teared me up.
Sturm's death was sad, but the scene that always gets me is Tasslehoff holding Flint's helm.
I thought that was sad too, however they gave the reader a pretty good idea that it was going to happen the more you saw Flint's condition worsen throughout the series.
True... But Sturm's death was also foreshadowed, and it was foreshadowed earlier in the series. I think that foreshadowing is why his death didn't impact me as much -- as the Forestmaster said, he died fulfilling his destiny.
Besides, it's not as much Flint's death that got me, though that was sad -- it was seeing the impact of it on Tasslehoff that really made it hit. |
| Diffan |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 13:46:40
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Diffan
As for novels, when Sturm died in Dragons of Winter Night and Wulfgar's death at the hands of the Yochol both teared me up.
Sturm's death was sad, but the scene that always gets me is Tasslehoff holding Flint's helm.
I thought that was sad too, however they gave the reader a pretty good idea that it was going to happen the more you saw Flint's condition worsen throughout the series. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 11:09:29
quote:
Originally posted by Diffan
As for novels, when Sturm died in Dragons of Winter Night and Wulfgar's death at the hands of the Yochol both teared me up.
Sturm's death was sad, but the scene that always gets me is Tasslehoff holding Flint's helm. |
| Diffan |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 10:49:29
quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal
Bloody disney films do it for me. I dont know what it is, perhaps subliminal messaging, but when the powerful music gets played and something bad happens, or someone gets rescued, i blub like a sissy girl. Its embarrasing, i'm not even sad at the time, its like an involuntary reaction.
^ this right here. Specifically, Tangled when the her father is grief stricken when she's kidnapped and when they're celebrating her birthday. As a father of two girls myself, it just gets me.
As for novels, when Sturm died in Dragons of Winter Night and Wulfgar's death at the hands of the Yochol both teared me up. |
| Irennan |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 10:44:27
quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal
I think its the music personally.
Yes, IME music can have dramatic effects on people's emotions. Even trivial happenings can be given an ''epic'' feel, or painted with sadness. If a scene is ''played'' (in the reader's mind through a novel, or on the screen with movies/vgs and so on) alongside a thematically unrelated music, then -IME- the impact of said scene will be diminished.
Music is quite powerful (but then, it depends on the person, since some appear to be insensitive to it). |
| BenN |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 08:52:43
To be honest, Realms novels don't move me as much as some movies do (example: Schindler's List, especially the scenes with the girl in the red coat ).
But I do feel a sense of poignant loss over what happens to some characters, such as Pwent, Innovindil, Brigit & Feliane. (Mmmm, sensing a pattern here, although one of those is not like the others..... ) |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 21 Apr 2015 : 08:30:02
Bloody disney films do it for me. I dont know what it is, perhaps subliminal messaging, but when the powerful music gets played and something bad happens, or someone gets rescued, i blub like a sissy girl. Its embarrasing, i'm not even sad at the time, its like an involuntary reaction.
I think its the music personally. Never had a reaction from a computer game because although they are immersive on a personal level they do not allow you to empathise with with the characters enough.
I love playing and reading about the realms but again never had a reaction from it other than when reading 4e/5e stuff, and then the only thing i feel is anger. |
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