Five Genres

Five Genres

Friday 11 November 2011

11.11.11

No, the title is most definitely NOT in reference to Skyrim!!!

It is in reference to the fact that November 11th is Remembrance Day here in Canada, and Veteran's Day in the US.  This year I wanted to do something to commemorate it, and all the Skyrim crap just helped me along.  No, I am not pissed off at the game, just the poor choice in timing for its release on Bethesda's part.  It is a gimmick, and a badly timed one me thinks.

Okay, enough about that, moving on.

My original idea for a screen shot involved quite a number of characters, most of which, although you may be familiar with them, have not yet appeared in The Phoenix Imperative.  I really didn't see the point of including characters that might confuse people, not to mention be more of a spoiler than I intended.  So, I went with something much simpler, and more personal to the people involved.

You will see only three characters here in FO3's version of Arlington National Cemetery, Cameron, vancleef's Silas Caine, and Yorak, the game personality of vancleef's younger brother.  I remember learning earlier this year, on Memorial Day in the US, that vancleef and Yorak had lost a grandfather to WW2.  I have an uncle that survived being in the infantry during that time, and he still suffers from the horrors he witnessed over there.  The three of us are the only ones I know on the Nexus that have been personally touched by war in some degree, so I thought this attempt at honouring today would be best.  I hope you do to.

Included after the image is the original text from the posting on the Nexus.  I will link the image here with the Nexus posting, for anyone that cares to comment there, and show your support by endorsing it if you can.

 


In my time here as a member of the Nexus community, I have had the good fortune to meet many good people.  Some of these folks have been personally touched by war.  My good friend vancleef and his younger brother Yorak lost a grandfather to the WW2.  Another gentleman was a veteran of, if memory serves me correctly, the Iraq war.  He lost a good friend and squad mate to enemy fire...right before his eyes.  I have an uncle that was in the infantry during WW2, and to this day, he still, on occasion, wakes up screaming from nightmares about what he saw and did.
It is for these people and many others that have had their lives touched by war that I post this image.  I want them to know that the sacrifices of their friends, family and loved ones are not forgotten.  If nothing else, I hope this image makes everyone that sees it stop and think...and remember.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when the last bell tolls, please take the time to honour our heroes, both past and present.

War...war never changes...
But maybe we can...

6 comments:

  1. Well-said and I agree. I've endorsed the image at the Nexus and I hope it does indeed remind folks to be thankful for the sacrifices others have made.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As I caught your reply on the Nexus before finding this one, I will thank you once again. More so this time, as now I know that you actually endorsed it. I really don't like the anonymous endorsement system, but there are times that I want to endorse something, but just can't find the words to explain why.

    I decided to take a peek through the recent images uploaded to the FO3,FNV and TESNexus Image Shares, and so far, mine is the only one to commemorate today. I hope that changes before the day's end :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well granted it's almost a week late. But the sentiments and feeling done in your screenshot here is pretty hard to really out do. Guess it sounds a lil silly but in it's simplicity it becomes a masterpiece on the raw feeling it puts out.

    Although I had family in a few of those wars I was lucky I did not lose any. The closes I ever came was in '95 on deployment our ship was sent to rescue the Air Force Pilot, Scott O'Grady.

    There was a Helo of ground troops that went for the actual extraction, me I was selected on standby in case any of our Harriers got shot down to be rushed out as part of a crew to disconnect various pieces of equipment from the aircraft.

    Luckily when they all made it back Pilot was safe and rushed to med bay, and the main helo only had a few bullet holes in it for repair. One of the bullets had bounced a few times inside and ended up in the Sgt. Maj's. Kevlar helmet webbing.

    As far as Beth softs release date, they were not the only ones making a big deal of the date. Apparently beyond the commercial advertisements for various things. A lot of Marriages and such happened then also. All thinking the number to be some lucky sign.
    But regarding the advertisements the date falling on a Fri was a really hard draw to pass up also.

    I figure something almost as flashy commercial wise will happen on 12.12.12. Add on top of that a lot of winter marriages happening at 12:12. Will be another hundred years before anyone has a chance to use those dates as marketing and superstitious roles.

    ReplyDelete
  4. While I understand the marketing strategy of using dates like these, I don't have to like it in this case, and still find it tasteless. That's just me.

    As far as being a week late with your comment, don't worry about it. I am happy that this is still gaining attention, and hope it will for a wee bit yet. If I can progress far enough with The Phoenix Imperative, I can do one again for next year that will include more of the cast, if not have an actual episode dedicated to Remembrance/Veteran's Day. I would prefer the whole episode idea, as I could have the origin of the day explained and also explain why it is important that the sacrifices of the past are never forgotten.

    Thanks for sharing that bit of story here Calabeth. I appreciate it :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hehe no problem Druu. And if it helps you could kinda change the story a lil for use in regards to memorial day. Not sure if Canada has something similar, but that picture is just as useful if not even better used for that day in the US.

    Veterans = honoring vets both alive and dead ( main reason was living ) who served honorably both in wartime and peacetime.
    Memorial = honoring those that have died in the service of their country. ( just to clarify on rare chance you did not already know )

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the clarification on the difference between those two days. As we only have Remembrance Day here in Canada, I was not clear on why there was the two separate days in the US. I can keep that in mind for future use :)

    ReplyDelete