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!
Sunday, November 29, 2015
NaNoWriMo 2015 Waking Dream Week 4
Sorry this update came so late, I was busy finishing my novel. So yes I did it. Things got really crazy there towards the end, family drama, changelings were banished, Ellen started college, the twins had a birthday, a rather huge revelation about one of my characters and everything got settled at a haunted house. Oh yeah we had some fun this week, me and my characters. This book should have cleared up a few mysteries, while possibly creating some new ones, but everything will be settled next year with "Riding the Dragon" so see you then!
Saturday, November 21, 2015
NaNoWriMo 2015 Waking Dream Week 3
Once again, I haven't made much progress, but I have some vacation time from my day job and I'm going to pound out some serious wordage this week. What happened in the book is in just a few chapters I was able to get Ellen back from the fairy world after a few interesting things happened there, but the weird thing is, the other Ellen got engaged to Nathan. Our heroes met Fickle Luna of the Ever Changing Moon and Jasper and Jade had a joyful family reunion, Ellen is not looking forward to the same happy ending.
If anyone was expecting another update on 7th Moon's animation, there is none this week. After getting a story board together with some character sketches last week, I'm waiting on the actual animation to be done, which means we are at the getting work done rather than talking about it stage. Not that I'm complaining, I'm sure it takes time and they need it, so I'll write and they'll draw and we'll check back in next week.
If anyone was expecting another update on 7th Moon's animation, there is none this week. After getting a story board together with some character sketches last week, I'm waiting on the actual animation to be done, which means we are at the getting work done rather than talking about it stage. Not that I'm complaining, I'm sure it takes time and they need it, so I'll write and they'll draw and we'll check back in next week.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
NaNoWriMo 2015 Waking Dream Week 2
So week 2 of National Novel Writer's Month and I managed to get through a few more chapters. There are new changelings now, Slade and Shayla the draconic counterparts of Jasper and Jade have switched places with them as well as Ellen switching places with the other Ellen in the fairy world. Ellen is now in the fairy world where she has met cait sith, mermaids, her parents King Oberon and Queen Titania and their servant Puck. Meanwhile, The other Ellen is getting in bed with Nathan, both literally and figuratively, much to the chagrin of Jason and Ralph who know it's not the real Ellen and are worried sick about their Ellen. It's going to take into next week for me to resolve those split storylines, but by next week Red Ellen should be back in Rochester and...well, that's for next week's update.
Meanwhile, another update for 7th Moon, we've got character models down for Hidariude, Keisei, Kichiku, and Seichei, and I just got the storyboard together, so they should be animating next week. As this is my first time doing professional animation, I have no idea how much longer this is going to take, but frankly I don't know what else is going to happen worth noting between now and when it's complete, so the next thing to say about this may be the final product, so stay tuned!
Meanwhile, another update for 7th Moon, we've got character models down for Hidariude, Keisei, Kichiku, and Seichei, and I just got the storyboard together, so they should be animating next week. As this is my first time doing professional animation, I have no idea how much longer this is going to take, but frankly I don't know what else is going to happen worth noting between now and when it's complete, so the next thing to say about this may be the final product, so stay tuned!
Saturday, November 7, 2015
NaNoWriMo 2015 Waking Dream Week 1
National Novel writer's month has started again and it has been a difficult week for me, I have not made much progress. But I did try and now I am working on chapter 3, which is still a slow portion of the story. So far I'm just covering some parties with Ellen and her friends, her birthday her prom, and her cousin's wedding. These are not terribly eventful, she's having a slow year so far, just kicking back and enjoying some down time with family. However she is noticing a mysterious new character named Ross, a DJ who happens to be working all of Ellen's parties. I really don't want to say anything about him, I know what he's there for, he's not bad, but I want to leave the mystery. He's part of a subplot I'm purposely trying to keep secret for now. Some details may come out in this book, but the big reveal will be in the last book. So I just have some fluff to ease readers back in, let them know what this world is like and remind them of the major characters. But things will pick up soon, next week when I hit chapter 4 we'll get started on the big story, the return of the changelings from the other side of the pairs in Rochester. But more on that in next week's update.
In other news, I just made a deal with an animation studio and soon we should get a 30 second clip of the battle between Hidariude, Kichiku, Keisei, and Seichei from chapter 6 of 7th Moon. This should be good, I'm so excited! I always wanted 7th Moon to be an anime and this is the first step, we start with one clip and soon we'll have the whole story made into an anime!
In other news, I just made a deal with an animation studio and soon we should get a 30 second clip of the battle between Hidariude, Kichiku, Keisei, and Seichei from chapter 6 of 7th Moon. This should be good, I'm so excited! I always wanted 7th Moon to be an anime and this is the first step, we start with one clip and soon we'll have the whole story made into an anime!
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Distant Worlds the Music of Final Fantasy
This past Thursday I attended what may have been the most amazing thing ever, Distant Worlds Music from Final Fantasy as performed by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra with guest conductor Arnie Roth and guest vocalist Susan Calloway. If you are not familiar with this concert, it is the music from the Final Fantasy video game series as performed by an orchestra. You can find videos of it on YouTube. You may think an orchestra performing music from a video game would be ridiculous, but Nobuo Uematsu managed to make music that was actually best performed by an orchestra even when he didn't have one to perform it. The concert has been around for eight years, at least in America where Arnie Roth brings the best he can select to local orchestras while video clips are played behind the orchestra.
This particular concert started with the "Prelude", signature notes on a harp followed by a chorus chanting along, then followed by the "Victory Fanfare" with live trumpets. Susan Calloway lent her voice to "Kiss me Goodbye" from Final Fantasy XIII "Eyes on Me" from Final Fantasy VIII and sang her song "Answers" from Final Fantasy XIV. The chorus brought a moving rendition of "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy VIII and "Man with the Machine Gun" rounded out that game's contributions while Final Fantasy X brought us equally moving renditions of "Hymn of the Fayth" and "Zanarkand". There was a battle theme medley that included Clash on the Big Bridge, and a chocobo medley that was a little goofy with a clip of the baby chocobo nesting in an afro perfectly timed with Mambo de Chocobo. Honestly, as much as I love chocobos and loved this performance, it was probably the one number in the whole show that may have embarrassed the professional orchestra and chorus. I was disappointed to see "One-Winged Angel" was not on the set list, but Roth pulled it out as the encore performance, and it was spectacular, the one must for an orchestral performance. My favorite though was from Final Fantasy VI, a character theme medley starting with Terra's, a.k.a. the Overworld Theme, a.k.a. the theme of the game, followed by Kefka's theme, which still creeps the shit out of me after all these years(I'm still crying for those 16-bit castle guards) and ending with Locke's theme which is the only tune from the game badass enough to triumph over Kefka's theme.
I highly recommend you look up a performance in your area if you're lucky enough to be on the tour schedule. They were talking about it coming back, and already I can't wait. I leave you now with some pics proving I was in the front row and a couple of cosplay girls I couldn't help but snap a pic of. Tifa and a sexy moogle, kupo!
This particular concert started with the "Prelude", signature notes on a harp followed by a chorus chanting along, then followed by the "Victory Fanfare" with live trumpets. Susan Calloway lent her voice to "Kiss me Goodbye" from Final Fantasy XIII "Eyes on Me" from Final Fantasy VIII and sang her song "Answers" from Final Fantasy XIV. The chorus brought a moving rendition of "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy VIII and "Man with the Machine Gun" rounded out that game's contributions while Final Fantasy X brought us equally moving renditions of "Hymn of the Fayth" and "Zanarkand". There was a battle theme medley that included Clash on the Big Bridge, and a chocobo medley that was a little goofy with a clip of the baby chocobo nesting in an afro perfectly timed with Mambo de Chocobo. Honestly, as much as I love chocobos and loved this performance, it was probably the one number in the whole show that may have embarrassed the professional orchestra and chorus. I was disappointed to see "One-Winged Angel" was not on the set list, but Roth pulled it out as the encore performance, and it was spectacular, the one must for an orchestral performance. My favorite though was from Final Fantasy VI, a character theme medley starting with Terra's, a.k.a. the Overworld Theme, a.k.a. the theme of the game, followed by Kefka's theme, which still creeps the shit out of me after all these years(I'm still crying for those 16-bit castle guards) and ending with Locke's theme which is the only tune from the game badass enough to triumph over Kefka's theme.
I highly recommend you look up a performance in your area if you're lucky enough to be on the tour schedule. They were talking about it coming back, and already I can't wait. I leave you now with some pics proving I was in the front row and a couple of cosplay girls I couldn't help but snap a pic of. Tifa and a sexy moogle, kupo!
Friday, October 23, 2015
Final Fantasy VII:Advent Children
After Final Fantasy VII became the greatest video game ever made(because VI apparently didn't count without polygon graphics) and Final Fantasy Spirits Within was the ultimate disappointment, Squenix decided to mine this property for all it was worth. Some people thought it was a bit of a letdown, but frankly I think it was everything it was supposed to be, which was a shorter version of Final Fantasy VII with much better graphics. A lot of people gripe about how Sephiroth came back to life after he was killed in the original game, but then I guess they're forgetting he died already and came back within the game, so this wasn't much of a stretch. In fact, him coming back through clones and a piece of his mother Jenova was kind of the main plot of the game. Advent Children may have lacked originality, but at least they finally made a movie based on a game that was recognizable to the source material. What we really wanted were fight scenes and there were enough to make this worthwhile. Really that's what it was all about and this was the second best scene:
Still trying to get that ringtone, but really it was all about the battle with Sephiroth. Final Fantasy VII had an epic ending but what we ultimately wanted was a real showdown between Cloud and Sephiroth and no matter how they may remake it, it will never be this:
So I'm into FF right now because next week I'm going to see Distant Worlds: Music of Final Fantasy perfomred by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, so that's all that really matters between now and NaNoWriMo! Now go back and watch that epic battle with One-Winged Angel playing in the background, peace out yo!
Still trying to get that ringtone, but really it was all about the battle with Sephiroth. Final Fantasy VII had an epic ending but what we ultimately wanted was a real showdown between Cloud and Sephiroth and no matter how they may remake it, it will never be this:
So I'm into FF right now because next week I'm going to see Distant Worlds: Music of Final Fantasy perfomred by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, so that's all that really matters between now and NaNoWriMo! Now go back and watch that epic battle with One-Winged Angel playing in the background, peace out yo!
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X was arguably a great game, many believe one of the greatest in the Final Fantasy series. Admittedly, it was the first in the series to be on the PS2 which means it had the best graphics yet and it was the first to have voice overs, so that meant a lot. But really to me, it was the game about water. Yes, PS2 had new water effects, and somebody at Square decided to take advantage of this by using water for everything and basically building an entire story aound water. I mean the main character Tidus wields a sword called Brotherhood that is made of water and they play a sport called Blitzball that is all underwater. The theme of the game is most decidedly water. It looks incredibly cool, but there are some glaring flaws that make it clear this game was a little half-assed.
Where to begin? How about the weapons and armor system? Ever since sprites got a greater detailed appearance it has been hard to justify armor so the armor options were quite limited, but this game skewed things around exceptionally. It was innovative that they came up with a system that lets you customize weapons and armor, but upon closer inspection we realize that there is a problem. Most games make weapons increase in power steadily throughout the game, but in this game there is really just one base weapon for every character that you can increase as you go along, and then one ultimate weapon you can get near the end, and of course the Brotherhood which is probably between the ultimate weapon and the next best weapon you can make. The armor system doesn't even have any ultimate options so really this game comes down to customizing the best you can for your playing style, which you can probably do near the beginning and you really don't have much need to upgrade through the whole rest of the game.
A much bigger problem than the equipment is the setting. Spira is impressive at first glance. It is the first game in the series to skip the over world map in favor of a continuous path of equal scale areas, which is interesting, until you realize just how small that makes the world. At the beginning of the game there are only six cities, two of which get destroyed during the story, so when all is said and done, there are only four cities left at the end of the game. There aren't even ruins of other cities, except of course Zanarkand, but that's a whole other ball of wax. Admittedly, the whole story revolves around a monster that destroys the world on a regular basis, but it does beg the question, how the hell did these people last a thousand years of this crap? Seriously, ever decade or two a giant flying whale rips apart the world, but we can hold it together long enough to play Blitzball?
Despite all of this, the story itself does play out pretty solid. The only real problem with the story is that it just rehashes the same sword wielder protects healer/summoner girl and falls in love with her, though it definitely did it with the most flash to date. And then there's the twist ending which is a bit disappointing, unless you play the sequel. For the record, the sequel's best ending ties with the last seconds of the original, which means it is the true ending. I believe in the end, Tidus is the Aeon of Water and ends up being Yuna's final summon after all.
Go ahead and play it, it's still fun, it's just not the best. Except the soundtrack, this game had the best music, opening on metal, hell yeah!
Where to begin? How about the weapons and armor system? Ever since sprites got a greater detailed appearance it has been hard to justify armor so the armor options were quite limited, but this game skewed things around exceptionally. It was innovative that they came up with a system that lets you customize weapons and armor, but upon closer inspection we realize that there is a problem. Most games make weapons increase in power steadily throughout the game, but in this game there is really just one base weapon for every character that you can increase as you go along, and then one ultimate weapon you can get near the end, and of course the Brotherhood which is probably between the ultimate weapon and the next best weapon you can make. The armor system doesn't even have any ultimate options so really this game comes down to customizing the best you can for your playing style, which you can probably do near the beginning and you really don't have much need to upgrade through the whole rest of the game.
A much bigger problem than the equipment is the setting. Spira is impressive at first glance. It is the first game in the series to skip the over world map in favor of a continuous path of equal scale areas, which is interesting, until you realize just how small that makes the world. At the beginning of the game there are only six cities, two of which get destroyed during the story, so when all is said and done, there are only four cities left at the end of the game. There aren't even ruins of other cities, except of course Zanarkand, but that's a whole other ball of wax. Admittedly, the whole story revolves around a monster that destroys the world on a regular basis, but it does beg the question, how the hell did these people last a thousand years of this crap? Seriously, ever decade or two a giant flying whale rips apart the world, but we can hold it together long enough to play Blitzball?
Despite all of this, the story itself does play out pretty solid. The only real problem with the story is that it just rehashes the same sword wielder protects healer/summoner girl and falls in love with her, though it definitely did it with the most flash to date. And then there's the twist ending which is a bit disappointing, unless you play the sequel. For the record, the sequel's best ending ties with the last seconds of the original, which means it is the true ending. I believe in the end, Tidus is the Aeon of Water and ends up being Yuna's final summon after all.
Go ahead and play it, it's still fun, it's just not the best. Except the soundtrack, this game had the best music, opening on metal, hell yeah!
Friday, October 9, 2015
sexism in RPGs
So last week I had a laugh at RPGs but I'd like to take a moment to talk about something I noticed in RPGs, they tend to be sexist. Invariably, the hero is a male warrior with minimal if any magic but great ability to use weapons, usually a sword, with supporting males using various weapons, while females use magic. The obvious conclusion is that males are stronger warriors, but bear in mind that this situation also means women are better at magic, which is arguably cooler than handheld weapons. Another important note is that the stat for magic is usually referred to as "intelligence" which is therefore higher in females than males. Females in RPGs are typically healers, but they also often have the ability to summon gods or at least god-like beings and bend them to their will to defend them and destroy their enemies and sometimes the women themselves can use some damage dealing magic as well. Not bad for a chick armed with just a staff, meanwhile her male companion usually has just a sword. That may be a big ass sword, but when your skill set consists entirely of hack and slash, there's appoint you have to wonder if his girlfriend is more of an asset than he is. And then on top of all this, the stats on their character sheets basically say the male is a strong yet stupid grunt while his girlfriend is a physically weak, but mentally gifted master sorceress.
Final Fantasy may be the most egregious offender, numbers 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 and to a lesser extent, 6 all followed this exactly, while 5 and 2 had too much flexibility in character building, but did suggest through dialogue that females made better magic and males made better fighters. Even the original made white mages the only females. Other RPGs follow the same pattern, such as Wild Arms, featuring sorceresses teaming with normal guys wielding swords. I first noticed this in FF8 while I was taking a course in sociology and my professor explained that we have to notice all the ways sexism stands out in everything. In FF8, all of the male playable characters have limit breaks that accentuate their weapon skills, whereas the females all have the ability to use magic as their limit breaks. The overarching theme was sorceresses and the men who love them.
In conclusion, there is arguably balance, but just once I'd love to see an RPG that doesn't divide this ratio by gender.
Final Fantasy may be the most egregious offender, numbers 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 and to a lesser extent, 6 all followed this exactly, while 5 and 2 had too much flexibility in character building, but did suggest through dialogue that females made better magic and males made better fighters. Even the original made white mages the only females. Other RPGs follow the same pattern, such as Wild Arms, featuring sorceresses teaming with normal guys wielding swords. I first noticed this in FF8 while I was taking a course in sociology and my professor explained that we have to notice all the ways sexism stands out in everything. In FF8, all of the male playable characters have limit breaks that accentuate their weapon skills, whereas the females all have the ability to use magic as their limit breaks. The overarching theme was sorceresses and the men who love them.
In conclusion, there is arguably balance, but just once I'd love to see an RPG that doesn't divide this ratio by gender.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
RPGs in a nutshell
So I've been going a little crazy and decided I'd just summarize every RPG video game ever made with my own fake script. Keep in mind, I love RPGs so no hate here, just noticing a pattern.
Hero: The evil empire has destroyed my home and killed my family, and now all I have left is this sword by which I shall swear VENGANCE!
Princess/Priestess: Help me! My home has been conquered by an evil tyrant who killed my family to get my power. I am the last heir to divine magic that lets me heal and protect and summon gods, but because I am so young and inexperienced I haven't reached my full potential and now all I can do is a little healing and summon a little cat-like creature that can barely defend me and I only have a staff to protect myself with! If the evil tyrant gets me he'll use my power to conquer the world!
Hero: I will protect youwith my sword, and my sword alone, because that's all I've got, but it will have to do until you get your power, and even then somehow my sword will still be stronger, yet everyone in our world will recognize you as the most powerful being even though I'm clearly stronger. Whatev's, as long as I get laid.
Princess/Priestess: My hero!
Evil Tyrant: Not so fast! It is I, the champion of the evil empire which ruined both of your lives, and now I will capture the girl and use her power to conquer the world!
Hero: But I will stop you with my sword!
Princess/Priestess: And I will keep healing him so he can hit you with his sword relentlessly until you finally die.
Evil Tyrant: FOOLS! I have released the power of an ancient evil sealed a thousand years ago! Someone should have destroyed it by now, but everybody just assumed the seal would hold and forgot about it, so now the power is mine! BUWAHAHA!
Cid & co: Excuse us, we're just some minor supoporting characters with vaguely interesting backstories that never really get developed because all the attention needs to be on the apocalyptic love story between you two, but we can help. Or at least we could if we ever got used and leveled up, but you'll ignore us until our final sidequest when we have a solo battle we are severely underprepared for. Only one of us will actually make the cut to be in your active party in the final battle anyway, and it will probably be the ridiculously overpowered badass who should have been the real main character.
Hero: Did you say overpowered badass? I want him!
Cid: Of course you do! But you won't get to him until near the end of the game and even then it will require a ridiculously hard sidequest that ends with an optional boss that's way more powerful than Mr. Main Villain over there.
Evil Tyrant: Hey, I'm right here!
Cid Whatever dude. Anyway, there will be several subtle clues hidden along the way, but they are so obscure you'll never figure them out, so just check a cheat guide to figure out how to find your guy.
Hero: Thank you, you are true friends!
Cid: Not so fast buddy, we actually don't really care about you, we're just afraid he's going to destroy our homes, kill our families and enslave us.
Hero: Well, that is what he's done to us.
Evil Tyrant: Yeah, I'm totally gonna do that.
Hero: Fair enough, let's do this! LEEROY JENKINS! Wait, where did everybody go?
Evil Tyrant: They're gone, it's time for our final duel!
Hero: No, they're not gone, I can feel them with me, supporting me in spirit! We'll defeat you together!
And with a final blow of the sword, the Evil Tyrant is felled and the world is saved and the hero lives happily ever after with his princess/priestess.
Hero: The evil empire has destroyed my home and killed my family, and now all I have left is this sword by which I shall swear VENGANCE!
Princess/Priestess: Help me! My home has been conquered by an evil tyrant who killed my family to get my power. I am the last heir to divine magic that lets me heal and protect and summon gods, but because I am so young and inexperienced I haven't reached my full potential and now all I can do is a little healing and summon a little cat-like creature that can barely defend me and I only have a staff to protect myself with! If the evil tyrant gets me he'll use my power to conquer the world!
Hero: I will protect youwith my sword, and my sword alone, because that's all I've got, but it will have to do until you get your power, and even then somehow my sword will still be stronger, yet everyone in our world will recognize you as the most powerful being even though I'm clearly stronger. Whatev's, as long as I get laid.
Princess/Priestess: My hero!
Evil Tyrant: Not so fast! It is I, the champion of the evil empire which ruined both of your lives, and now I will capture the girl and use her power to conquer the world!
Hero: But I will stop you with my sword!
Princess/Priestess: And I will keep healing him so he can hit you with his sword relentlessly until you finally die.
Evil Tyrant: FOOLS! I have released the power of an ancient evil sealed a thousand years ago! Someone should have destroyed it by now, but everybody just assumed the seal would hold and forgot about it, so now the power is mine! BUWAHAHA!
Cid & co: Excuse us, we're just some minor supoporting characters with vaguely interesting backstories that never really get developed because all the attention needs to be on the apocalyptic love story between you two, but we can help. Or at least we could if we ever got used and leveled up, but you'll ignore us until our final sidequest when we have a solo battle we are severely underprepared for. Only one of us will actually make the cut to be in your active party in the final battle anyway, and it will probably be the ridiculously overpowered badass who should have been the real main character.
Hero: Did you say overpowered badass? I want him!
Cid: Of course you do! But you won't get to him until near the end of the game and even then it will require a ridiculously hard sidequest that ends with an optional boss that's way more powerful than Mr. Main Villain over there.
Evil Tyrant: Hey, I'm right here!
Cid Whatever dude. Anyway, there will be several subtle clues hidden along the way, but they are so obscure you'll never figure them out, so just check a cheat guide to figure out how to find your guy.
Hero: Thank you, you are true friends!
Cid: Not so fast buddy, we actually don't really care about you, we're just afraid he's going to destroy our homes, kill our families and enslave us.
Hero: Well, that is what he's done to us.
Evil Tyrant: Yeah, I'm totally gonna do that.
Hero: Fair enough, let's do this! LEEROY JENKINS! Wait, where did everybody go?
Evil Tyrant: They're gone, it's time for our final duel!
Hero: No, they're not gone, I can feel them with me, supporting me in spirit! We'll defeat you together!
And with a final blow of the sword, the Evil Tyrant is felled and the world is saved and the hero lives happily ever after with his princess/priestess.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Teen Titans and Thundercats: remake injustice
I just have a question for Cartoon Network: why do you keep showing Teen Titans Go and yet Thundercats did not get renewed?
First off let's talk about Teen Titans vs Teen Titans Go. It has come to my attention that fans are not happy with the new series, and I agree, it's crap. Teen Titans was based on a DC comic series wherein Robin, Batman's sidekick, goes off on his own and forms a team with other superheroes, specifically other teenagers of possible sidekick origin like himself. In the cartoon the team consisted of Cyborg(the least imaginitively named character ever as he is literally a cyborg, but still cool) Beast Boy, a green guy who can change into any animal limited only by the fact that he is always green, raven, a dark brooding sorceress, and Starfire, an alien with the power to fly and shoot laser blasts. They gave more background to Starfire as an alien who played like a foreign exchange student who didn't understand our culture, customs, or subtle nuances of language. They gave even more background to Raven who is the daughter of a demon and has the power to potentially destroy the entire world and is constantly suppressing this power. The boys don't get much background though, even Robin manages to avoid any mention of Batman so you have to know in advance, though most people do. And Beast Boy is a vegetarian because when he can be any animal, he finds it hard to eat something he was at one time. The new series has the same cast of characters and the same voices, except that the original was serious and dark in line with Batman. The original show was badass and cool about superheroes saving the world from legitimate threats. Teen Titans Go is a self-parody that jokes about the Titans every day lives blown up to superhero proportions and very rarely has anything to do with actually saving the world, or saving anything for that matter. Admittedly, i only catch it when I first wake up on Sunday and my TV is still tuned to that channel after watching Toonami the night before, but I see enough to know the voice actors should be ashamed of themselves for letting their hard work be diminished by this reboot.
On the other end of the spectrum we have Thundercats. A few years ago Cartoon Network rebooted the classic Thundercats. I know some people didn't like the reboot and complained that it wasn't as good as the original, I actually saw a few of the original episodes rerun a few years before the reboot, that old show was crap. We liked Thundercats because we were kids, we had no standard of taste and animation studios weren't giving us any credit so we ate whatever crap they fed us and Thundercats was the best of it's time, but compared to what has followed since, the new Thundercats was a much needed breath of fresh air making the show what it should be. The remake changed the story up a little bit, in the original the Thundercats were humanoid felines from Thundera who end up on thir earth fighting mutant Beastmen and Mumm-Ra who all have different origins and are now in conflict on this new world where none of them belong, whereas in the remake the Thundercats are one of a number of species of humanoid animals that once served Mumm-Ra but rebelled leading to everyone being on Third Earth and Mumm-Ra is finally awakened and seeks revenge on the Thundercats who are now determined to stop him by any means possible. The cast is basically the same, just a few details changed to make sense in the new world as opposed the old canon, in both versions Lion-O is the lion-like leader with the Sword of Omens and a gauntlet/sheath, Tigra is the whip wielding master fo invisibility, Cheetara is the female cheetah who runs real fast and wields a quarterstaff, Panthro is the big old strong gruff fighter with nunchucks, Wily Kit and Kat are kids who rely on tricks more than serious weapons, and Snarf is their mascot, while the antagonists include Mumm-Ra the mummy who is just pure evil, Slythe the lizard man and the unimagintively named Jackalman, Apeman, and Vultureman. The animation was done by Studio 4C, a Japanese Anime studio that does a lot of American projects and makes them the most badass cartoons ever. The voice cast was pretty good(they even got the original Lion-O to voice the new Lion-O's father) and the writing actually made some impressive episodes. One that stood out to me was an episode about tiny plant people who go through their entire life cycle in one day. It starts with a baby being born and then we see a little boy grow up rapidly befriending Lion-O and dying of old age in one day, and then you realize he was the baby born at the beginning and we just witnessed his entire life, and it was quite moving how he made the most of it. Another good episode was when Lion-O meets a sword maker and a swordsman who claims the weapons of his opponents, a story which played out like a cheesy samurai flick, but with enough spirit to actually pull it off. Most of the rest of the series actually followed a storyline with purpose, mostly nodding to the original series and reusing old characters to tell a fresh new version. Sadly, after just one season when they had just picked up steam and had really gotten rolling, the series simply ended with no renewal.
So I ask again, Cartoon Network, why is Teen Titans Go still running and you cancelled Thundercats?
First off let's talk about Teen Titans vs Teen Titans Go. It has come to my attention that fans are not happy with the new series, and I agree, it's crap. Teen Titans was based on a DC comic series wherein Robin, Batman's sidekick, goes off on his own and forms a team with other superheroes, specifically other teenagers of possible sidekick origin like himself. In the cartoon the team consisted of Cyborg(the least imaginitively named character ever as he is literally a cyborg, but still cool) Beast Boy, a green guy who can change into any animal limited only by the fact that he is always green, raven, a dark brooding sorceress, and Starfire, an alien with the power to fly and shoot laser blasts. They gave more background to Starfire as an alien who played like a foreign exchange student who didn't understand our culture, customs, or subtle nuances of language. They gave even more background to Raven who is the daughter of a demon and has the power to potentially destroy the entire world and is constantly suppressing this power. The boys don't get much background though, even Robin manages to avoid any mention of Batman so you have to know in advance, though most people do. And Beast Boy is a vegetarian because when he can be any animal, he finds it hard to eat something he was at one time. The new series has the same cast of characters and the same voices, except that the original was serious and dark in line with Batman. The original show was badass and cool about superheroes saving the world from legitimate threats. Teen Titans Go is a self-parody that jokes about the Titans every day lives blown up to superhero proportions and very rarely has anything to do with actually saving the world, or saving anything for that matter. Admittedly, i only catch it when I first wake up on Sunday and my TV is still tuned to that channel after watching Toonami the night before, but I see enough to know the voice actors should be ashamed of themselves for letting their hard work be diminished by this reboot.
On the other end of the spectrum we have Thundercats. A few years ago Cartoon Network rebooted the classic Thundercats. I know some people didn't like the reboot and complained that it wasn't as good as the original, I actually saw a few of the original episodes rerun a few years before the reboot, that old show was crap. We liked Thundercats because we were kids, we had no standard of taste and animation studios weren't giving us any credit so we ate whatever crap they fed us and Thundercats was the best of it's time, but compared to what has followed since, the new Thundercats was a much needed breath of fresh air making the show what it should be. The remake changed the story up a little bit, in the original the Thundercats were humanoid felines from Thundera who end up on thir earth fighting mutant Beastmen and Mumm-Ra who all have different origins and are now in conflict on this new world where none of them belong, whereas in the remake the Thundercats are one of a number of species of humanoid animals that once served Mumm-Ra but rebelled leading to everyone being on Third Earth and Mumm-Ra is finally awakened and seeks revenge on the Thundercats who are now determined to stop him by any means possible. The cast is basically the same, just a few details changed to make sense in the new world as opposed the old canon, in both versions Lion-O is the lion-like leader with the Sword of Omens and a gauntlet/sheath, Tigra is the whip wielding master fo invisibility, Cheetara is the female cheetah who runs real fast and wields a quarterstaff, Panthro is the big old strong gruff fighter with nunchucks, Wily Kit and Kat are kids who rely on tricks more than serious weapons, and Snarf is their mascot, while the antagonists include Mumm-Ra the mummy who is just pure evil, Slythe the lizard man and the unimagintively named Jackalman, Apeman, and Vultureman. The animation was done by Studio 4C, a Japanese Anime studio that does a lot of American projects and makes them the most badass cartoons ever. The voice cast was pretty good(they even got the original Lion-O to voice the new Lion-O's father) and the writing actually made some impressive episodes. One that stood out to me was an episode about tiny plant people who go through their entire life cycle in one day. It starts with a baby being born and then we see a little boy grow up rapidly befriending Lion-O and dying of old age in one day, and then you realize he was the baby born at the beginning and we just witnessed his entire life, and it was quite moving how he made the most of it. Another good episode was when Lion-O meets a sword maker and a swordsman who claims the weapons of his opponents, a story which played out like a cheesy samurai flick, but with enough spirit to actually pull it off. Most of the rest of the series actually followed a storyline with purpose, mostly nodding to the original series and reusing old characters to tell a fresh new version. Sadly, after just one season when they had just picked up steam and had really gotten rolling, the series simply ended with no renewal.
So I ask again, Cartoon Network, why is Teen Titans Go still running and you cancelled Thundercats?
Friday, September 18, 2015
Fairy Tail: the campaign for a new Toonami show begins!
So last week while I was chatting with my new friend Todd Haberkorn I asked him why his show Fairy Tail is not on Toonami. He said he didn't really know, but he does wish it were on. He said a little more, but I don't want to get into specifics lest I get him into trouble. So now I intend to start a campaign to get Fairy Tale on Toonami, let's raise the demand on Twitter #FairyTail.
For those who are not familiar with Fairy Tail, it's like if Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Naruto and One Piece are the Big Four, Fairy Tail would make it the Big Five. It's a fun, goofy, fantasy adventure show about wizards. The world of Fairy Tail is a lot like a modern world, or almost modern with magic being used in place of technology in a lot of places, the end result is the same but wizards can make a decent living using unique magic skills. Most wizards join guilds and one of these guilds is the Fairy Tail guild. The story begins with a young wizard named Lucy who wants to join Fairy Tail. Lucy is a celestial wizard meaning that she comes from a special order that makes contracts with celestial spirits and summons them with magic keys. Lucy is a beginner with magic but finds her order stuffy and boring and wants to join Fairy Tail because they seem like more fun so she runs away from home with her magic keys and hopes to find a way in to the Fairy Tail guild. We find her in one town pursuing a wizard who she believesfits the bill and crosses paths with a stranger who seems to be looking for the same person. This stranger is named Natsu and he is traveling with a blue talking cat-like creature familar named Happy. They help Lucy out inadvertently and she repays them with lunch then gets in even more trouble and Natsu comes back to help her again. Natsu feels bad about taking advantage of her kindness at lunch because he had only helped her by accident the first time and isn't sure he deserved to be repaid, but he has the perfect way to repay her, he can help her join Fairy Tail because he happens to actually be a member himself. Natsu is a Dragon Slayer style wizard, one of only three known in the entire world. The style was named because it was first invented to slay dragons, but now that their number has diminished it ironically is used by dragons to make their human friends more able to tolerate the potentially harsh conditions of living in their presence. It involves three powers, Dragon Skin that makes one invulnerable to a particular element, Dragon Lungs which allows one to consume that element as if it were food, and Dragon Claws which allows that stored element to be released as a weapon, usually covering the hands to enhance natural punches etc. In Natsu's case his element is fire and he is looking for his adoptive father, a fire dragon who gave him his powers. Happy is an Exceed, a creature from another world that can sprout wings and extend his tail to carry objects when he flies, and also retract these appendages in a decidedly magical fashion. Soon Lucy gets to join the guild of her dreams and the three continue to take jobs from the board and explore the world!
I have only seen the first two episodes, I do not have the patiece to watch anime on a computer, I just keep feeling like I need to do something else on the computer and can't sit still for 22 minutes at a time. I want it on Toonami and I think I'm not the only one, if you want it, let's tweet #FairyTail on #Toonami all the way through the block, midnight to 3:30 AM!
For those who are not familiar with Fairy Tail, it's like if Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Naruto and One Piece are the Big Four, Fairy Tail would make it the Big Five. It's a fun, goofy, fantasy adventure show about wizards. The world of Fairy Tail is a lot like a modern world, or almost modern with magic being used in place of technology in a lot of places, the end result is the same but wizards can make a decent living using unique magic skills. Most wizards join guilds and one of these guilds is the Fairy Tail guild. The story begins with a young wizard named Lucy who wants to join Fairy Tail. Lucy is a celestial wizard meaning that she comes from a special order that makes contracts with celestial spirits and summons them with magic keys. Lucy is a beginner with magic but finds her order stuffy and boring and wants to join Fairy Tail because they seem like more fun so she runs away from home with her magic keys and hopes to find a way in to the Fairy Tail guild. We find her in one town pursuing a wizard who she believesfits the bill and crosses paths with a stranger who seems to be looking for the same person. This stranger is named Natsu and he is traveling with a blue talking cat-like creature familar named Happy. They help Lucy out inadvertently and she repays them with lunch then gets in even more trouble and Natsu comes back to help her again. Natsu feels bad about taking advantage of her kindness at lunch because he had only helped her by accident the first time and isn't sure he deserved to be repaid, but he has the perfect way to repay her, he can help her join Fairy Tail because he happens to actually be a member himself. Natsu is a Dragon Slayer style wizard, one of only three known in the entire world. The style was named because it was first invented to slay dragons, but now that their number has diminished it ironically is used by dragons to make their human friends more able to tolerate the potentially harsh conditions of living in their presence. It involves three powers, Dragon Skin that makes one invulnerable to a particular element, Dragon Lungs which allows one to consume that element as if it were food, and Dragon Claws which allows that stored element to be released as a weapon, usually covering the hands to enhance natural punches etc. In Natsu's case his element is fire and he is looking for his adoptive father, a fire dragon who gave him his powers. Happy is an Exceed, a creature from another world that can sprout wings and extend his tail to carry objects when he flies, and also retract these appendages in a decidedly magical fashion. Soon Lucy gets to join the guild of her dreams and the three continue to take jobs from the board and explore the world!
I have only seen the first two episodes, I do not have the patiece to watch anime on a computer, I just keep feeling like I need to do something else on the computer and can't sit still for 22 minutes at a time. I want it on Toonami and I think I'm not the only one, if you want it, let's tweet #FairyTail on #Toonami all the way through the block, midnight to 3:30 AM!
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Roc Con 2015 Review
I also had a delicious Harley Quinn cookie from my neighbor Haley who bore a striking resemblance to a Harley Quinn cosplayer I saw at Tora-Con.
And now I leave you with pictures of all the other cosplayers who came by my table.
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