7th Moon
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Star Wars,: the Sith Principle
A long time ago, in a blog far, far away...
Since Star Wars is everywhere this weekend, I figured I might as well throw in with everybody else. I haven't actually gotten to see the new movie and I'm told I can't say anything about it if I did, so I'll go in a different direction. I'm going to talk about what I call the Sith Principle. Yoda said there are always two Sith, one master and one apprentice. I thought about this and wondered why and fnally realized, it's not just the Sith, it's evil in general.
First of all, you can not have more than one master, because if there were more than one, they would all vie for number one and kill each other until only the stongest remained. This then begs the question of why there is an apprentice. The apprentice is one humble enough to know he's not the strongest, yet ambitious enough to believe he could be if he were trained by the one who is the strongest. Much like the mastters fighting among themselves, the apprentices would fight each other until there would be only one. Such is the ambition of the Dark Side that there really isn't room for anyone else in the Sith, you're either driven to make the top two or you're too weak to be a part of the order. So now that we narrowed it down to the top two, why do they put up with each other? As I said, theapprntice wnts to learn from the master, why figure it all out for yourself when you can learn from someone who knows it all already? Because the master is going to use you to do his dirty work, that's why he let's the apprentice stick around. It's always good to have someone to be the fall guy, so you send out the apprentice to do all your dirty work and if anything goes wrong, he takes the blame and you're free to get a new apprentice and keep going. Just look at Palpatine, he skated by two out of three episodes in two trilogies with everybody looking at his apprentice and went through three apprentices with almost nobody even knowing he was the one taking over the galaxy. Of course, there is the downside that if the apprentice gets strong enough he will eventually betray the master and kill him, but the basic philosophy is, if you are the master of the Dark Side, and your apprentice gets powerful enough to pull off assasinating you, you didn't deserve to be master anymore anyways. It's one part confidence and pride that it just ain't gonna happen so don't worry about it, and one part that the final test of the apprentice is to prove yourself by overcoming your master. Ultimately, they are still mortal and they know the only way to preserve their ways is to continue to gamble with an apprentice who will keep you on your toes while being the perfect minion. Besides, if you're going to be a master of the Dark Side, you really want one person who can truly comprehend just what a badass you really are. I mean, consider that dude who dared to talk back to Darth Vader and got force choked. That was a guy who regularly worked with the most evil people in the galaxy, helped them build a weapon that could destroy planets, and still didn't get that being sarcastic could spell his own demise from two fingers across the room. If you are the master of the Dark Side, and you can't get your generals to get that you're more than just some old dude in a cloak, you realize your demi-god status just isn't being recognized, so it's nice to have your apprentice around to keep it real.
Having said all that, I totally support the light side of the force. Remember there were more Jedi because they were not homicidal. Do you want to try to rule the galaxy knowing that the attempt could kill you, or do you just want a light saber and telekinesis with a little amnesia power in case of emergencies?
Since Star Wars is everywhere this weekend, I figured I might as well throw in with everybody else. I haven't actually gotten to see the new movie and I'm told I can't say anything about it if I did, so I'll go in a different direction. I'm going to talk about what I call the Sith Principle. Yoda said there are always two Sith, one master and one apprentice. I thought about this and wondered why and fnally realized, it's not just the Sith, it's evil in general.
First of all, you can not have more than one master, because if there were more than one, they would all vie for number one and kill each other until only the stongest remained. This then begs the question of why there is an apprentice. The apprentice is one humble enough to know he's not the strongest, yet ambitious enough to believe he could be if he were trained by the one who is the strongest. Much like the mastters fighting among themselves, the apprentices would fight each other until there would be only one. Such is the ambition of the Dark Side that there really isn't room for anyone else in the Sith, you're either driven to make the top two or you're too weak to be a part of the order. So now that we narrowed it down to the top two, why do they put up with each other? As I said, theapprntice wnts to learn from the master, why figure it all out for yourself when you can learn from someone who knows it all already? Because the master is going to use you to do his dirty work, that's why he let's the apprentice stick around. It's always good to have someone to be the fall guy, so you send out the apprentice to do all your dirty work and if anything goes wrong, he takes the blame and you're free to get a new apprentice and keep going. Just look at Palpatine, he skated by two out of three episodes in two trilogies with everybody looking at his apprentice and went through three apprentices with almost nobody even knowing he was the one taking over the galaxy. Of course, there is the downside that if the apprentice gets strong enough he will eventually betray the master and kill him, but the basic philosophy is, if you are the master of the Dark Side, and your apprentice gets powerful enough to pull off assasinating you, you didn't deserve to be master anymore anyways. It's one part confidence and pride that it just ain't gonna happen so don't worry about it, and one part that the final test of the apprentice is to prove yourself by overcoming your master. Ultimately, they are still mortal and they know the only way to preserve their ways is to continue to gamble with an apprentice who will keep you on your toes while being the perfect minion. Besides, if you're going to be a master of the Dark Side, you really want one person who can truly comprehend just what a badass you really are. I mean, consider that dude who dared to talk back to Darth Vader and got force choked. That was a guy who regularly worked with the most evil people in the galaxy, helped them build a weapon that could destroy planets, and still didn't get that being sarcastic could spell his own demise from two fingers across the room. If you are the master of the Dark Side, and you can't get your generals to get that you're more than just some old dude in a cloak, you realize your demi-god status just isn't being recognized, so it's nice to have your apprentice around to keep it real.
Having said all that, I totally support the light side of the force. Remember there were more Jedi because they were not homicidal. Do you want to try to rule the galaxy knowing that the attempt could kill you, or do you just want a light saber and telekinesis with a little amnesia power in case of emergencies?
Friday, December 11, 2015
Final Fantasy VII
I'm wrting this because I realized I didn't actually touch on this game before, maybe some of the off shoots, but never actually gave this one an in depth review. Mainly I didn't do it because I felt spiteful about how as soon as Playstation came out with new graphics, Square abandoned it's roots in telling great stories with super deforemed midget sprites and jumped on the polygon bandwagon and everyone loves it because it had flashy graphics even though it was basically just the previous game done over again. But I got over it swallowed my pride, and gave this game a shot. If you have een living under a rock since 1997, here's what happened:
The game starts you in the middle of the story, like seriously after all of the flashbacks and prequel games, you realize you are really smack dab in the frickin' middle of this thing when the game opens with Cloud already in the middle of a mission with the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE getting ready to blow up a power plant. Yeah, how's that for being thrown right in the deep end, you start planting a bomb in the first few minutes of the game. If you're too young to know what an eco terrorist group is, because they just aren't quite as big as, say, religious extremist terrorist groups are now, back in the nineties, people were big into saving the Earth and major companies who cared more about their bottom line than the environment were seen as the bad guys because they produced large amounts of toxic waste, used up lots of resources and built over pristine wilderness with no regard for wildlife. Eco-terrorists were the opposite extreme going as far as blowing up office buildings and factories to stop the pollution, even at the cost of human lives. Since it was current and topical, Square thought this was a good premise for a Final Fantasy game, at least as a starting point. AVALANCHE only has four or five members including their leadr Barret Wallace, a large black man with a gun for a hand(to be explained later, actually very relevant to the plot) and they hire Cloud Strife, a mercenary and ex-SOLDIER with an agenda of his own. SOLDIER is the private military of the Shinra Electric Company, the company that sells materia(the stuff that you use to perform magic, summons, skills, and augment stats), and whose mako reactors are going to be bombed by your hero. AVALNCHE believes that Shinra is destroying the planet, but they don't quite know just how right they are. The game starts in Midgar, a city that is like New York City, only it's owned by Shinra. There is no real government in this world, Shinra is the closest thing you'll get. After bombing two reactors, Cloud gets separated from the others when he falls through the roof of a church and meets Aerith. This church is inexplicably the only place where flowers grow in all of Midgar and Aerith sells these flowers and tries to keep a low profile, but somehow draws the attention of the Turks(kind fo like the CIA) who are chasing Cloud and suddenly decide she's also important, but it's not quite clear why. Cloud elps her escape and she offers to guide him back to his friends from the slums where they are but they get a little side tracked when Cloud notices his friend Tifa is in trouble. They help Tifa, but Aerith gets caught and AVALANCHE is killed except for Barret, Tifa and Cloud, and Shinra is responsible for both. Cloud leads the team to rescue Aerith, avenge their comrades, and take down Shinra once and for all. First they sneak into Shinra headquarters to find Aerith who has been thrown in a cage with a beast and if you didn't read the instruction manual or any of the promotional material it looks like a boss fight, but it turns out the beast is Red XIII and he just wants to escape and go home like everybody else, so he agrees to join the group and use his ferocity to help. Just when it looks like they're about to take down the president of Shinra, it appears someone has beaten them to it leaving a sword that is familiar to Cloud. But before all the pieces can be put together, they all make their escape, with Cloud jumping on a motorcycle and everybody else jumping in a truck which they steal from a display on the ground floor and Cloud provides cover while they leave the city.
A lot has happened and you just now hit the world map for the first time. Your first stop is the nearest town where you take a rest and Cloud explains the significance of the sword that killed the president of Shinra, it's the Masamune, an unwieldy zanbato that belongs to Sephiroth, a SOLDIER that Cloud believes he killed five years earlier. He tells the story about how they went to Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim on a misson where Sephiroth discovered the truth of his own existence, he was created by Shinra from a sample from a specimen known as Jenova that was actually being kept in Nibelheim. Sephiroth snapped and burned the town to the ground and tried to make off with Jenova, Cloud realized Sephiroth had to be stopped and fought him, Cloud was stabbed by Masamune, and Cloud desperately tilted the blade with his whole body while it was still in him, throwing Sephiroth down a hole to his doom. Or so he thought, it seems Sephiroth is alive, and to get to the bottom of this, Cloud wants to go back to Nibelheim. Tifa seems troubled by Cloud's recollection because she was there as Sephiroth's guide, but shrugs it off when Cloud tries to talk to her about it.
On the way to Nibelhiem, they end up at the Gold Saucer, a ridiculous casino that's like the whole Vegas Strip crossed with Disney World. Here they meet Cait Sith which appears at first to be a fortune telling animatronic cat riding an animatronic moogle. Cait Sith is actually a spy bot controlled by Reeve Tuesti, Shinra's housing commisioner who turns the tables on Barret by revealing that he has Barret's daughter Marlene held hostage and they will be taking Cait Sith along or else. They end up thrown down to a prison pit in the desert that nobody can escape except to play for their freedom in the arena for the entertainmanet of the resort's guests. Before that happens, Barret has an unfotuate encounter with another guy who has a gun for an arm, his old friend from a mining town that Shinra used up and left behind ad when Barret tried to stand up to Shinra, they were run out of town and Barret's friend fell off a cliff, Barret tried to give hs friend a hand and help him back up, but Shinra forces shot at them severing the hands that they were holding on to each other with, leading Barret to believe his friend was dead and he put a gun in place of his lost hand to remind himself to avenge his friend. Now that he found his friend is alive and went even more psycho, Barret has to settle things. With Barret's backstory revealed, we return to the present and Cloud leads the arty to win not only their freedom, but also a car to drive out of the desert and onward toward Nibelheim. Of course the car breaks down and they need to stop for repairs in Cosmo Canyon which happens to be home to Red XIII known in these parts as Nanaki. We get a quick bit of background on him, he finds out his father didn't abandon him he died being literally petrified while protecting the canyonfrom an invading tribe, and he gets the Seraph Comb(a kinda cool weapon), but it still doesn't explain what he is. Next stop Nibelhiem where eveything is normal and Cloud is confused, because nobody remembers him or the fire. The party continues on to find Cid Highwind an old retired Shinra pilot who is bitter about unrealized aspirations to be an astronaut. The Turks show up and Cid gets dragged into the party's conflict and flies them to the Temple of the Ancients where they believe all of their answers lie. They find the Black Materia and Sephiroth telepathically messes with Cloud's mind. Aerith abandons the group and heads north. Aerith is a Cetra, and has a special connection to the planet and is trying to secure the White Materia which will counter the Black Materia in a worst case scenario(which of course will happen). Cloud and the others catch up with Aerith in time to witness Sephiroth kill her and then we discover the truth about the Sephiroth clones, which he claims Cloud is. tifa dmits that it wasn't Cloud in Nibelhiem, it was Zack, Aerith's boyfriend. Cloud is confused and Sephiroth takes advantage of the moment to take the Black Materia.
The team is separated, but they eventually find Cloud recovering at a clinicin the south, but he's clearly gone mentally. Finally, Cloud discovers the real truth, he was a mere infantryman guarding Zack and Sephiroth, he was wearing a helmet that obscured his face which is why Tifa didn't recognize him, but most of what he remembered was otherwise accurate. Now they are ready to stop Sephiroth, but he has already activated the Black Materia, dropping a meteor on the planet. Don't worry though, the meteor will hang in the sky for as long as it takes to defeat Sephiroth. As for why, his plan is that just as blood flows toward a wound to heal it, if he blows a crater straight to the core of the planet, he figures all the mako energy will flow to him and make him a god. what's really crazy is that it kind of would have worked, but you stop him first. The biggest moments here are when Sephortoth transforms into the "One-Winged Angel"(Actually seven because he's a seraph plus his one black wing) and the final duel with Cloud which is just for show, select Omnislash and watch Cloud finish him off(man that will be even more awesome in the remake). Then the meteor drops and the white materia activates and saves the world in what was the most beautiful cinematic sequence in any video game at that time.
For the remake, if you're listening Square, please correct Barrets's speech and the Turks pluralization/singularization and for the love of all that is good and holy, please explain what the hell Red XIII is! I'd also appreciate something with Cait Sith that makes him make more sense too, but really I'd just settle for Nanaki getting explained, because I just don't know why you put him in and left us hanging.
The game starts you in the middle of the story, like seriously after all of the flashbacks and prequel games, you realize you are really smack dab in the frickin' middle of this thing when the game opens with Cloud already in the middle of a mission with the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE getting ready to blow up a power plant. Yeah, how's that for being thrown right in the deep end, you start planting a bomb in the first few minutes of the game. If you're too young to know what an eco terrorist group is, because they just aren't quite as big as, say, religious extremist terrorist groups are now, back in the nineties, people were big into saving the Earth and major companies who cared more about their bottom line than the environment were seen as the bad guys because they produced large amounts of toxic waste, used up lots of resources and built over pristine wilderness with no regard for wildlife. Eco-terrorists were the opposite extreme going as far as blowing up office buildings and factories to stop the pollution, even at the cost of human lives. Since it was current and topical, Square thought this was a good premise for a Final Fantasy game, at least as a starting point. AVALANCHE only has four or five members including their leadr Barret Wallace, a large black man with a gun for a hand(to be explained later, actually very relevant to the plot) and they hire Cloud Strife, a mercenary and ex-SOLDIER with an agenda of his own. SOLDIER is the private military of the Shinra Electric Company, the company that sells materia(the stuff that you use to perform magic, summons, skills, and augment stats), and whose mako reactors are going to be bombed by your hero. AVALNCHE believes that Shinra is destroying the planet, but they don't quite know just how right they are. The game starts in Midgar, a city that is like New York City, only it's owned by Shinra. There is no real government in this world, Shinra is the closest thing you'll get. After bombing two reactors, Cloud gets separated from the others when he falls through the roof of a church and meets Aerith. This church is inexplicably the only place where flowers grow in all of Midgar and Aerith sells these flowers and tries to keep a low profile, but somehow draws the attention of the Turks(kind fo like the CIA) who are chasing Cloud and suddenly decide she's also important, but it's not quite clear why. Cloud elps her escape and she offers to guide him back to his friends from the slums where they are but they get a little side tracked when Cloud notices his friend Tifa is in trouble. They help Tifa, but Aerith gets caught and AVALANCHE is killed except for Barret, Tifa and Cloud, and Shinra is responsible for both. Cloud leads the team to rescue Aerith, avenge their comrades, and take down Shinra once and for all. First they sneak into Shinra headquarters to find Aerith who has been thrown in a cage with a beast and if you didn't read the instruction manual or any of the promotional material it looks like a boss fight, but it turns out the beast is Red XIII and he just wants to escape and go home like everybody else, so he agrees to join the group and use his ferocity to help. Just when it looks like they're about to take down the president of Shinra, it appears someone has beaten them to it leaving a sword that is familiar to Cloud. But before all the pieces can be put together, they all make their escape, with Cloud jumping on a motorcycle and everybody else jumping in a truck which they steal from a display on the ground floor and Cloud provides cover while they leave the city.
A lot has happened and you just now hit the world map for the first time. Your first stop is the nearest town where you take a rest and Cloud explains the significance of the sword that killed the president of Shinra, it's the Masamune, an unwieldy zanbato that belongs to Sephiroth, a SOLDIER that Cloud believes he killed five years earlier. He tells the story about how they went to Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim on a misson where Sephiroth discovered the truth of his own existence, he was created by Shinra from a sample from a specimen known as Jenova that was actually being kept in Nibelheim. Sephiroth snapped and burned the town to the ground and tried to make off with Jenova, Cloud realized Sephiroth had to be stopped and fought him, Cloud was stabbed by Masamune, and Cloud desperately tilted the blade with his whole body while it was still in him, throwing Sephiroth down a hole to his doom. Or so he thought, it seems Sephiroth is alive, and to get to the bottom of this, Cloud wants to go back to Nibelheim. Tifa seems troubled by Cloud's recollection because she was there as Sephiroth's guide, but shrugs it off when Cloud tries to talk to her about it.
On the way to Nibelhiem, they end up at the Gold Saucer, a ridiculous casino that's like the whole Vegas Strip crossed with Disney World. Here they meet Cait Sith which appears at first to be a fortune telling animatronic cat riding an animatronic moogle. Cait Sith is actually a spy bot controlled by Reeve Tuesti, Shinra's housing commisioner who turns the tables on Barret by revealing that he has Barret's daughter Marlene held hostage and they will be taking Cait Sith along or else. They end up thrown down to a prison pit in the desert that nobody can escape except to play for their freedom in the arena for the entertainmanet of the resort's guests. Before that happens, Barret has an unfotuate encounter with another guy who has a gun for an arm, his old friend from a mining town that Shinra used up and left behind ad when Barret tried to stand up to Shinra, they were run out of town and Barret's friend fell off a cliff, Barret tried to give hs friend a hand and help him back up, but Shinra forces shot at them severing the hands that they were holding on to each other with, leading Barret to believe his friend was dead and he put a gun in place of his lost hand to remind himself to avenge his friend. Now that he found his friend is alive and went even more psycho, Barret has to settle things. With Barret's backstory revealed, we return to the present and Cloud leads the arty to win not only their freedom, but also a car to drive out of the desert and onward toward Nibelheim. Of course the car breaks down and they need to stop for repairs in Cosmo Canyon which happens to be home to Red XIII known in these parts as Nanaki. We get a quick bit of background on him, he finds out his father didn't abandon him he died being literally petrified while protecting the canyonfrom an invading tribe, and he gets the Seraph Comb(a kinda cool weapon), but it still doesn't explain what he is. Next stop Nibelhiem where eveything is normal and Cloud is confused, because nobody remembers him or the fire. The party continues on to find Cid Highwind an old retired Shinra pilot who is bitter about unrealized aspirations to be an astronaut. The Turks show up and Cid gets dragged into the party's conflict and flies them to the Temple of the Ancients where they believe all of their answers lie. They find the Black Materia and Sephiroth telepathically messes with Cloud's mind. Aerith abandons the group and heads north. Aerith is a Cetra, and has a special connection to the planet and is trying to secure the White Materia which will counter the Black Materia in a worst case scenario(which of course will happen). Cloud and the others catch up with Aerith in time to witness Sephiroth kill her and then we discover the truth about the Sephiroth clones, which he claims Cloud is. tifa dmits that it wasn't Cloud in Nibelhiem, it was Zack, Aerith's boyfriend. Cloud is confused and Sephiroth takes advantage of the moment to take the Black Materia.
The team is separated, but they eventually find Cloud recovering at a clinicin the south, but he's clearly gone mentally. Finally, Cloud discovers the real truth, he was a mere infantryman guarding Zack and Sephiroth, he was wearing a helmet that obscured his face which is why Tifa didn't recognize him, but most of what he remembered was otherwise accurate. Now they are ready to stop Sephiroth, but he has already activated the Black Materia, dropping a meteor on the planet. Don't worry though, the meteor will hang in the sky for as long as it takes to defeat Sephiroth. As for why, his plan is that just as blood flows toward a wound to heal it, if he blows a crater straight to the core of the planet, he figures all the mako energy will flow to him and make him a god. what's really crazy is that it kind of would have worked, but you stop him first. The biggest moments here are when Sephortoth transforms into the "One-Winged Angel"(Actually seven because he's a seraph plus his one black wing) and the final duel with Cloud which is just for show, select Omnislash and watch Cloud finish him off(man that will be even more awesome in the remake). Then the meteor drops and the white materia activates and saves the world in what was the most beautiful cinematic sequence in any video game at that time.
For the remake, if you're listening Square, please correct Barrets's speech and the Turks pluralization/singularization and for the love of all that is good and holy, please explain what the hell Red XIII is! I'd also appreciate something with Cait Sith that makes him make more sense too, but really I'd just settle for Nanaki getting explained, because I just don't know why you put him in and left us hanging.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Final Fantasy VII, Waking Dream and other random updates
I don't have much new to say about Waking Dream, except that I realized I had added two lesbians and two, possibly four bisexual characters. I won't spoil who's who, you have to read the book to figure it out. If I had to say why I'm so fluid with the sexuality of my characters, it's because I was inspired by works like City of Bones and the works of Amanda Hocking. Those authors didn't seem to care about unusual or unexpected sexualities throwing off the reader, the idea was to simply create a world where such things were no more out of place than the supernatural. I feel ignoring the possibilities and restricting everyone to the heteronormative hinders the story, so after reading how loose other authors can be, I let everything flow naturally. I just don't feel the need to hold back, these characters live in something like the real world and this is what the real world is.
In other news, this new trailer was released for the Final Fantasy VII remake. It looks like they've updated the fighting system to something like Kingdom Hearts; there will still be a menu, but we'll be controlling Cloud in real time on the main field and fight enemies without cutting to a specific battle scene. So far it only shows Cloud solo, so I'd like to see what happens when you have a multi-character party, but so far this looks interesting. Just wanted to add an extra challenge, because I saw this on a website, let's go with what I call the Story Challenge: nobody can equip any materia that they don't start with except Aerith and Yuffie; and Cloud and Barret can never upgrade their weapons, and Red XIII has to keep the Seraph Comb, so don't even bother with other weapons for those guys, don't buy 'em and just go ahead and toss 'em out if you get them for free. You might wan to stock up on potions and see how this works out, I know I'm trying it, I suspect it may be that this game might possibly be more conducive to this than the original...or maybe it will make it even more challenging, we'll find out soon!
So what else is new? Well, I finally beat the Sneak attack as Ginyu mission in DBXenoverse, so I may be able to update my review of that game. I faced Mira for the first time, so this will be a challenge, but at least I don't have to fight as Ginyu anymore. And just when I finally spring for a frog in Crossy Road, two days later, I get a free frog. why frogs? Frogger of course! Yeah well, that's all I got this week, stay gold until the next update!
In other news, this new trailer was released for the Final Fantasy VII remake. It looks like they've updated the fighting system to something like Kingdom Hearts; there will still be a menu, but we'll be controlling Cloud in real time on the main field and fight enemies without cutting to a specific battle scene. So far it only shows Cloud solo, so I'd like to see what happens when you have a multi-character party, but so far this looks interesting. Just wanted to add an extra challenge, because I saw this on a website, let's go with what I call the Story Challenge: nobody can equip any materia that they don't start with except Aerith and Yuffie; and Cloud and Barret can never upgrade their weapons, and Red XIII has to keep the Seraph Comb, so don't even bother with other weapons for those guys, don't buy 'em and just go ahead and toss 'em out if you get them for free. You might wan to stock up on potions and see how this works out, I know I'm trying it, I suspect it may be that this game might possibly be more conducive to this than the original...or maybe it will make it even more challenging, we'll find out soon!
So what else is new? Well, I finally beat the Sneak attack as Ginyu mission in DBXenoverse, so I may be able to update my review of that game. I faced Mira for the first time, so this will be a challenge, but at least I don't have to fight as Ginyu anymore. And just when I finally spring for a frog in Crossy Road, two days later, I get a free frog. why frogs? Frogger of course! Yeah well, that's all I got this week, stay gold until the next update!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)