Today’s topic for the most exciting 100 theme challenge is #13, misfortune, and I suppose that makes sense, with it being #13 and all. Hmm, well, what do I have to say about misfortune? It’s certainly unfortunate, that much is for sure. Um, and it’s…bad…? Well, I’m certainly not going to get into some negative post about misfortune in my life because who wants to hear about that? And I also don’t mean, oh, woe is me, no one cares about my problems anyway. Now I’m starting to ramble….
You know what came to mind as I began thinking about this topic? Why is the number 13 supposed to be unfortunate? I hear they often don’t even have a 13th floor in some buildings as a result of this superstition, but who are they fooling? We all know the 14th floor really is the 13th. This is no secret. It certainly made no difference in Stephen King’s story about the evil room 1408. Even the room wasn’t fooled, and it’s an inanimate object. Or, to be more accurate, cube-ish shaped spaces of air contained by walls. And if walls could talk, they’d say, “Um, is it just me, or did the people who built this hotel not know how to count?” Don’t worry, sentient walls, we all noticed.
And then there’s Organization XIII from the “Kingdom Hearts” series, but who is it that’s suffering from a bout of misfortune? Them or the people they encounter? Because they’re the ones who lost their hearts and then got murdered by a goofy, teenage boy. All of them, that is, except for #13, Roxas. Ironic, no? Well, not all (aside from Roxie) were murdered by Sora, but all were murdered in some form or another. So is their name in a reference to themselves being unfortunate, then, because their enemies certainly don’t seem to be? And why point out their misfortune? And okay, yeah, their name is because they have 13 members, but still. Square Enix, at least, had something in mind with using this number, so…you know what, I’m not even entirely sure where I’m going with this, so never mind.
And then there’s Friday the 13th, which is both a movie and a date, and yet I have never suffered from any misfortune from said date. Though, I have noticed strange behavior when there’s a full moon, so the existence of lycanthropes may indeed be possible….
Anyway, yeah, where did they even come up with 13 as being unlucky? I kind of get 6 because it’s one less than 7 (wait, why is 7 considered lucky?!), and someone once went through this math problem to prove why 9 is considered perfect (though, I had never heard of such a thing prior), and 6 is an upside down 9, but only because mankind drew it that way, so why is 6 at fault for this? I just don’t know….
Well, there’s my random tirade on misfortune. Hopefully, you don’t feel too unfortunate after having read it.
Unfortunate Duck
The Duck of Indeed 
No one knows for sure what the origin of this superstition is, though there’s some theories. Thirteen members at the Last Supper, one of them a betrayer, and apparently King Philip the Fourth arrested the Knights Templar on October 13 1307. But we’ll probably never know for certain. It is rather interesting to ponder though.
During my Google searching, I’ve found out that apparently the number thirteen is considered lucky in Italy.
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The number four is supposed to be unlucky in Japan. Four in Japanese is “shi”, which I hear is also the word for “death”, and that’s why Vexen in “Kingdom Hearts” was number four, and you know what happened to him….
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