Around the World in 8 Sundays – Winter Wonderland / Antartica

Hello everyone!

And welcome back to the blogging community’s favourite, and most powerful weekly event, Seriously Geeky Sundays, forged in a top secret village in the North Pole by Heather of Just Geeking By, her army of elves working hard all year round to bring us sweet questions and prompts that are fun for all the family!

This week is all about the cold places, be they real life ones or those from fandoms! Do I have opinions on this? You can bet your bottom dollar I do! Let’s get into it, shall we?

There’s only one way to celebrate the coldest part of the world and that’s at Christmas. This week we’re combining Around the World in 8 Sundays with a celebration of all things wintery and christmassy in pop culture.

Question 1 – What is your favourite winter themed fandom?

Does The Thing count as a fandom?

I know I’ve mentioned it before (for the pure nastiness of the alien itself) but I love the Antarctic wilderness as portrayed in this movie. It is dark, constantly blizzard ravaged and looks cold and inhospitable as they come, the beleaguered researchers huddled for warmth in their claustrophobic yet warm and dry station as the interloper assimilates and picks them off one by one.

The winter wonderland in The Thing is just as lethal as the monster, an insurmountable landscape that will sap the life out of you in no time flat. But it is also, in a strange and compelling way, a thing of beauty.

Question 2 – Which ice/winter character do you like the most?

A hallmark of Final Fantasy since the days the games shipped on cartridges, the mighty summon Shiva is always around to save the day.

Shiva usually appears when one of the characters summons her using magic, descending onto the field to throw powerful ice spells around and, if lucky, deliver her killer signature move, Diamond Dust. Shiva is beautiful, occasionally sassy as hell and, in one memorable incident, a motorcycle.

She would hate you meddling woth the thermostat though.

Question 3 – What is your favourite Christmas themed moment in a fandom?

Not sure if it counts as a moment, per se, but I loved the Christmas themed level from Gex: Deep Cover Gecko.

This early level had our movie-loving lizard, voiced by Red Dwarf‘s Danny John Jules, exploring a delightfully cartoony version of the North Pole, completing side quests and collecting shiny things as he went. You could snowboard, icae skate with elves and even climb up on top of Santa’s house, which was all very cool back in the days of the PlayStation, let me tell you!

Question 4 – There have been many incarnations of Santa over the years; which has been your favourite?

Okay, so, let’s talk about the triumphant return of the cheesy family Christmas movie shall we, featuring children who may or may not believe anymore, the festive season being in peril, weird little elves and, most importantly, the most delightfully cast, most badass Santa Claus you have ever seen…

I speak, of course, of Netflix’s Christmas Chronicles, starring only bloody KURT RUSSELL as the festive lad himself! What does Mr. Russell bring to the role of Saint Nick that no other movie Santa has before? Well, he’s badass! He can cobble together gadgets from junk, drive cool muscle cars, categorically refuses to say “ho ho ho” and, in one memorable scene, performs a snazzy musical number in a jail cell with a bunch of perps (Kurt Russell is quite the singer!).

He’s just as excellent in the new sequel, and he gets to hang around with Goldie Hawn too, which is always a bonus! These movies would still be a fun Christmas movie adventure without Kurt’s Santa Plissken, but with him they’re elevated to actually decent movies!

Question 5 – Which winter themed creature is your favourite?

(If you haven’t read/watched The Terror and feel like you want to, maybe skip this next entry because of SPOILERS!)

My favourite tundra-based beast is the “Creature on the Ice” aka the Tuunbaq from Dan Simmons’ The Terror. Though specifically the book version, the screen version I thought was a bit underwhelming.

When Royal Navy explorer ships Terror and Erebus get stuck fast in the Arctic ice, it isn’t long until a mysterious, unseen assailant starts bloodily killing off the crew. Described in fits and starts as huge, white furred, switching between bipedal and all-fours and with very big claws, the Tuunbaq of Inuit lore really doesn’t like having a load of miserable British sailors mucking around in its territory.

To be fair, who could blame it?

Question 6 – If you could move to any snowy fictional place, which one would it be?

Damn, I already kind of answered this in an earlier edition of Seriously Geeky Sundays! Now I shall have to think of another…

I bet Skyrim would be a good place to live, as long as the bandits, monsters or massive dragons didn’t visit your village. Imagine living in a little log house on a snowy mountain, stealth-archering your days away, sneaking around tombs looting useful items, hanging out with khajeet and hoarding healing potions and never actually using them “just in case you need them one day”…

Ah, that’s the life.

And there we have it, this chilly episode has come to an end! Let us go home and warm up, but make sure to check out all of the other writers under the #SeriouslyGeekySundays hashtag too, for they are always an absolute pleasure to read, so says me!