Remember when Ross on Friends dressed for Halloween as The First Russian Satellite + A Potato? (Sputnik + potato spud = Spudnik? Come On, Sympathy Laugh? Anyone?)
pic transposters.tumblr.com
It was Dress Up As A Book Character Day in school recently, and so colourful pictures of numerous wonderful personalities our kids read about abound. And then there’s the other stuff: When kids want to wear what they want to wear instead, they’re gonna find the most wonderful arguments for why. Rockstar’s one of ’em.
Guess which “book character” Rockstar was?
Gameknight999. *crickets chirping*
He argues this is very different from diamondranger-whatever-number who graced his school Halloween, because one is a book character, while the other is a gamer tag.
Wait, what?
pic from goodreads.com
Gameknight is the character from a series of – yes, really – gaming novels that people write in yet another exploitation manifestation of gaming fever, our kids’ generation. There are a. lot. of these things. Writers of tween and young adult stories caught on to the rabid world of gaming trend, even as popular gaming Youtubers also branch off into writing novels. We’ve got gaming-inspired playing cards, gaming-themed birthdays (and THEN some, because God forbid you organise something that makes your kid look uncool), an army of rockstar-esque gaming Youtubers that would usurp Middle Earth based on numbers alone, collectible vinyl figurines, wrapping paper, clothing, lunch bags, back packs… why not the books?
pic from amazon.com
Stampy for e.g., is at least as popular as a Youtuber as he is in the book series. (We haven’t read this particular series because Rockstar is so-so about the character.) Anyway, you will find gazillions of these on fishpond.com and amazon.com. Headsup, don’t just buy the books cos your kid loves the gaming characters and it is. A. Book. (We almost did. And then I skimmed through a couple. Some are churned out so quickly that they’re rife with grammatical mistakes and typos.)
So anyway this is Gameknight boarding the bus. (Note he’s not carrying weaponry).
Why yes, around him are Antman, Darth Vader, a fireman…. Rockstar says Horrid Henry was particularly popular because…. yes. He carries Nerf guns. The “no props” rule covered light sabers, regular as well as water Nerfs (apparently Water-Nerf Kid had his gear confiscated before you could say Dennis The Menace), though Harry Potters were mostly allowed to keep their wands “Because they don’t do anything except light up.”
Still don’t understand how come no one went as a Hobbit <facepalms>…
Rockstar: …there was also Iron Man….
Me: Isn’t that from a comic? (Not serious; like the gamer novels, they have Avengers, Transformers, Ninjago etc readers nowadays)
Rockstar: <ignores> and Batman…
Me: Also a comic.
Rockstar: <ignores> Think I saw Captain America…
Miss: <happily, automatically> Issa comic!
Me: They’re all comics! You guys’ll exploit any chance to try and get away with whatever you want to wear anyway. (Rockstar had badly wanted to wear his diamond ore t-shirt to school.) And did anyone even know who you were? (Rockstar brought one of the books along in case he was asked).
Rockstar: No one asked. Everyone just called me “Crafting Table.” (His t-shirt has a crafting recipe on it. And don’t get me started about how his friends all recognise this like it’s…. normal.)
Me: Which is technically not a book character either.
Miss: <happily> Issa comic!
Could it be that Rockstar chose this character because it was easy to dress up as such?
Also very possible… Anything, to wear that t-shirt inside…
btw Mun, sorry for such late replies – Disqus keeps hanging when I load on my phone, and even on laptop takes really long to open recently…