Koko Hill: Demystified finally

And my little Football Whiz Kid prank ruffles some feathers. My friend thinks my “beef” (his exact words) with Van Persie couldn’t have been for any other reason than my hate for Manchester United. Sentimental fellow, that one. Well, after I laughed off the insinuation, it quickly hit me. All along, right from his Arsenal days, something about Persie peeved me, but I was never able to place my hands around what it was.

I gave my peeve a little more thought, and my Tiny Toon memories came flashing back. It got clearer, and I was finally able to put the puzzle pieces together. Growing up, I was obsessed with Tiny Toon video game. There were Sonic and Mario, but neither of them fascinated me like this one. I would pull the table too close to the telly, played my time and eyesight away till tears literally rolled down my face. Intermittently, I would take one hand off the pad to wipe off the tears, and then went on to dry palm on my cloth. And this course of action happened in split seconds, just so I’d get on as fast as possible with my game. Pressing the pause button or dropping the pad were out of the question, because then you would remind waiting lions it was time for their Mortal Combats. It’s best the days I got home before everyone else, because that’s when I would front my “I got here first, so…”attitude.

From stage to stage, the bunny ate carrots, increased its life span, and killed enemies that tried to attack it and reduce its life span as a result. That’s basically bunny's mission in the adventurous world of Tiny Toon. I would be smart to advance to new stages with my life span intact, because that way I had enough lifetimes to survive in tougher situations. Right before the tougher situations set in, there were the ascending lilac birds that attacked unpredictably. Lilac bird was the only bird I desired to catch alive, clip its wings, drop it on the floor, and gleefully watch it struggle for freedom. As mature as I am now, a little vengeful part of me still relishes the idea of torturing the lilac bird.

Like a sword, its wings awkwardly and annoyingly extended to attack, that no matter how much I tried to protect bunny, what always followed was “wewewewe” (that’s actually me mimicking the sound effect whenever bunny got knocked out) and then the tiny stars circled like a halo over its head. A lot of times, I felt frustrated, other times, I empathized with bunny as I envisioned the stabbing pain (similar to getting cut by the rotating blades of an electric fan) those wings may have caused it. I failed bunny too many times at this level. If I was lucky to have him around, the ace that was my brother came to the rescue, jumping on their heads while I cheered in the background, as I watched them drop into nothingness. I especially struggled at this point before I finally learnt to advance on, and when I did, it was already mission accomplished for me.

Van Persie reminds me of the lilac birds. Just like the birds' wings, the Persie arms also spread out so rigidly whenever he’s on the run with the football while he wades his way through the opponents. Pair that with the gait he runs in, and the result could be a walking lilac bird. I sought for a picture of the lilac bird in vain throughout last night, but today, I luckily found video clues and took screen shots. You can compare for yourself.