Final Fantasy XV

Yes, I did get Final fantasy XV for Christmas and although I haven't had much time to get into this game, it is pretty awesome. I don't want to get too much into the story because I am still new and don't know a whole lot myself, but the main thing is that it's about four guys and a car. Of the four guys the main one is Noctis, Prince of Lucis, the last free kingdom in the world of Eos. Lucis is protected by a crystal whose power is channeled by the king, so Noctis is pretty important because he has a unique set of magical powers that only he can use as the royal heir and his kingdom is dependent on him to perform his duties to keep out the daemons that plague the rest of the world. This is you're only playable character so no pressure, but a kingdom's fate rests squarely on your shoulders. Next up is Gladiolus, the bodyguard, he's basically a knight whose entire job is to keep you alive, but an event in Noctis' youth has led them to be friends so when he's not swinging his greatsword he's pretty laid back. Gladiolus has a sister who came to visit him at work one day and got lost when she wandered off, Noctis found her and helped her get home safe, then took the heat for them getting lost in the first place, then when they got home she confessed to her brother and he felt like he owed Noctis, but even more impotantly, Noctis never gave a hint that he wanted anything in return so Gladiolus recognized he wasn't the brat he thought he was. Then there's Ignis who appears to be your chauffer and personal chef based on what he actually does in your party, but really he's a high raking royal advisor who happens to have ended up with Noctis as his responsibility. The last guy is Prompto, who is really nothing more than a classmate of Noctis who got to be his BFF, which mens that lacking any official role, he's the odd man out, never really knowing what's going on and it's not even entirely clear why he's even there in the first place. Noctis is betrothed to Lunafreya, the Oracle, who seems to be the only magical person outside of Lucis and is largely responsible for protecting everybody else in the world. The Empire of Niflheim has united the people of the outside world and with Lucis the last holdout, they want the kingdom and a deal to secure peace between the two nations is relying on the marriage between Noctis and Lunafreya. And so the story begins with the four guys on a road trip to see the bride. Obviously, things don't go as planned...

What is really impressive about this game is how realistic it is, and I'm not just talking about graphics, it's also gameplay. In addition to combat, each guy has an "exploration" skill that levels up as they do things outside of combat that help the party, Noctis can go fishing, edible fish he catches can be cooked by Ignis, Gladiolus can find additional ingredients after battle, and Prompto takes pictures so you have mementos of everything. Okay, the last part doesn't seem important, but you get levels, so it must matter at some point. In any case, it's good to see how everything works together to be more than just using a tent to restore HP, then resume fighting random monsters like most RPGs. Also, there's the hunting aspect, reused from the last few games, you don't just get gil for killing monsters, you actually have to be contracted to hunt them or collect treasure to sell. And one of the best things is your car, the Regalia, which you use to get from one place to another while keeping your party together. On one hand, the car can be boring because you get in it and just ride to the next point on the map, but you also get to select your music while you ride which includes the soundtracks from every Final Fantasy game and a tribute single from Afrojack, so the auto pilot makes it easier to cycle through the deck. Also the car is realistically practical, I mean seriously, why do heroes seem to just walk across vast stretches of overworld? This is a modern world where you drive a car over long distances. You do have to gas it up periodically but your mechanic is a hot chick named Cindy who wears super short cutoff jean shorts and a bikini top (to be fair she lives in the desert, it's probably hot, but then why does she always wear that jacket too?). One really impressive feat is how the whole world is one continuous area, so everything is to scale. Everything about this game feels like it's real, every thing you've ever questioned about a game world is addressed except going to the bathroom. The only downside to all of this reality is that it's light on combat because while random encounters do happen, enemies don't just appear, they have to be somewhere so you tend to know when they are coming, which means unless you are stuck in a room with no way out, you can always run away from a battle. But when battles do happen, they are epic. Noctis has the power to summon weapons which is integral to the story, so as far as where these weapons are between battles, that's covered, but it also provides interesting mechanics, like how Noctis can reverse his weapon summoning by warping to his sword when he throws it and attacking enemies at long distances, which is both strategic and really cool looking. You can also use magic, although the system for it is a little odd, you draw out the three elements of fire, ice and lightning from draw points and then craft grenade-like spells three at a time to throw at enemies. There's also the risk that you can hit your own party with these, but if you learn how to use them properly, they can be good for crowd control.

When the game loads, it says "A Final Fantasy for fans and first timers" and I have to say, that about sums it up, fans will find plenty to love, and first timers will find an experience that is exciting and lacks everything that ever turned them off to the series and genre in the first place. For once, a game is worth the hype, I just hope FFVII remake follows suit.

Christmas Joy

"I want a Red Rider BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thingy that tells time!"

"You'll shoot your eye out."

That simple exchange is familiar to anyone who has ever watched the classic, "A Christmas Story" but there is a reason it resonates even for those of us who don't want a Red Rider BB gun or even know what it is, becaus Ralphie pursues tha with a determination that we can all relate to because at some point we've all had that one present we wanted that bad, our own personal Red Rider BB gun. For me it was usually video games, as it is again this year. Some people don't like video games because they think it makes kids anti-social, but for meit was more the opposite. I remember a time before video games, and it was lonely because nobody wanted to play with me. It's hard to play ball when there's no one to play against, the same with board games and pretty much every other game or toy that was meant for social interaction. As the wierd kid who was just plain no good at anything, keeping friends to play games was even harder than winning the game itself, I was very lonely. Then my parents got a Nintendo Entertainment System, for me and I believe to some extent my older sister. Nintendo was awesome, because I didn't need another kid to enjoy the game, for once there was a game I could play by myself if I had to. It's not tthat I want to avoid social interaction, it's just that it seemed easier for everyone involved if I did. But as sad as this sounds, video games make great therapy for this loneliness, because as games got better, there was invariably a story that made you feel like a hero. No matter how many times you screw up, there's always another chance to go back and do it again, and no matter how long it takes, there's always your princess thankful you showed up at all with a victory tune that makes you feel a sense of accomplishment.

I guess I took for granted the joy this brought me every Christmas when I got a new game and played the hell out of it. I eventually grew up and thought I was moving past that and it was time to expect something more than presents under the tree. Then my nieces came along and I watch them every Christmas with that excitement I used to have and after a few years of not bothering to ask for games that I no longer have time to play because I'm a grown up and I have to work, it hit me that being a grown up is not all it's cracked up to be and we all deserve to have that joy on Christmas morning, just for one day to forget how much life sucks and just open a present and be happy for one frickin' day. I don't care about what people say about commercialism and how tis day is about the birth of the lord and not about stuff. When I was a kid, my parents made me earn my toys, anything over $10 went on the wishlist for Christmas or my birthday and the latter usually got a smaller haul than the former, so this was the day I could get the stuff I couldn't get the rest of the year, so I appreciated it, and looking back I realize, that it is a part of the experience that makes the holiday so great. It's winter, it's cold outside, snow is getting in your shoes, but for this month we can look forward to a day with fmaily, enjoying a feast second only to Thanksgiving, drinking egg nog, looking at lights that make any neighborhood compete with the Las Vegas Strip, watchign sappy movies and listening to sappier songs and best of unwrapping a box under the tree to find the game that was just out of price range for the past few months.

This year my game of choice is Final Fantasy XV which is kind of a big deal because it also means upgrading to the PS4 and I haven't gotten a console since PS2(I didn't find anythign on the PS3 woorth investing in). As a grown up I am setting asdie some money in case I need to buy it myself from an after Christmas sale, but I'm really hoping Santa brings it(meaning I hope my parents got it for me, unless you still believe in Santa in which case, never mind, I totally really meant Santa). It's not even really about the game itself really, it's about missing the simple Christmas joy, of knowing someone still loved me enough to get me what I wanted, the same way I got some good stuff for the people I love, and I hope we all get to experience that same joy as when Ralphie finally did get his Red Rider BB gun, and I wish the same joy to you all. Merry Christmas!

Undertale

Ooookaaay... I haven't finished Undertale, but so far it is probably the weirdest game I have ever played. It is an indie game, an RPG with graphics that look like it was made in 1990 and mostly drawn by someone who did the best they could with a mouse and a paint program from that period. Despite looking like crap, it can still be fun to play thanks to clever writing that makes the story funny and at times touching and sweet, and other times creepy on a level I never knew was possible. Its most distinguishing feature is that you can get through the game without actually killing anybody, and there are three different endings depending on whether you kill everyone, spare everyone, or take a middle path. The way it works is that when a battle starts, you can choose either to attack or act, the latter of which will still leave you open to an attack from the monster, but you actually get a chance to avoid damage in a minigame so if you play it right you can be friendly with the monsters and get to the end without killing them, although sometimes this is harder than it looks and you often get tempted to simply kill monsters instead of exercising patience in sparing them.

In the game you are a human who falls down a hole into the subterranean world of monsters that has been sealed off from humans because there was a war that was basically just racist and ended up cramming all the monsters in a cave. The monsters actually have rather human personalities when you get to know them and each one has some quirk you can take advantage of to have peaceful interactions and like humans, some of them are jerks and it really takes patience to end the battle without killing them(usually bosses), whereas others are pretty much pushovers, and a few really just take one simple action to back off. The first monster you meet is Flowey, who appears to be a cute sunflower and then shockingly turns out to be the most raving mad psycho in the whole world. Fortunately, Flowey is chased off by Toriel, a horned beast who looks like a bipedal cow in a house dress and acts like a sweet overprotective mother. She takes you home and bakes you a pie and everything seems fine until you try to leave, and then she fights you to keep you with her. The truly sad and disturbing part is that she has solid logic to prove it's out of love, Asgore wants your soul to break the boundary to the outside world and you will be sacrificed if you don't stay with her, she's seen it happen to others before you. She's so stubborn I killed her the first time because the directions were kind of tricky and she cried for me before she died, so I tried again and she lived, but Flowey was right there to taunt me by saying he knew what I did. It took me a second to realize the game how complicated the game code was that it was expected I'd cheat like this, but his evil grin still creeped me out like "How did he know I reset the game?" As you move forward you meet more weird characters most notably the skeleton brothers Sans and Papyrus. Sans likes you right away and his sense of humor makes him likable, but Papyrus is confused, he wants to fight you at first, but despite his words his clumsy actions lead you to be spared, and if you have mercy on him you become friends and then he decides to date you, as it is abundantly clear he is socially awkward to the point he doesn't actually understand the meaning of dating. Also there are a series of dogs that are ridiculously cute as much like real dogs, they act like fierce guards until you pet them and they become your friends. There are also some other really weird characters and the methods of not fighting get weirder and weirder, including Vegetoid who wants you to eat him, Woshu who just wants to wash you, the cute Tems who just want kitty kibble and one monster simply wants you to leave it alone. The sweetest one in my opinion is Gyftrot, a reindeer decorated like a Christmas tree who is cranky because of the weght stacked on his antlers an all you have to do is remove the clutter.

The simplest thing to do is just kill everybody but I've been told this leads to a miserable ending which involves the destruction of the universe. The pacifist run, which I'm attempting, is supposed to get the best ending, but it is very testing, and I'm tempted to do a run where I kill everyone except Toriel, Sans and the dogs. It seems to be popular at cons, so if you're one of those people looking for a truly original and unique gaming experience, this is it.

Mobius Final Fantasy

I've gotten into a relatively new mobile game called Mobius Final Fantasy and I highly recommend it. It has very high quality graphics and a pretty novel interface, although the story is a bit lacking, at least at first, but they just released the second part of Chapter 3 and that's apparently only halfway through, so I'm giving it some more time to develop. The game starts off with you answering the call of your name from an unseen voice. Many others are also answering the call, the problem is, you don't know if they're wrong or you are because you are an amnesiac. Soon you meet Garland who is no help either except to suggest you help a moogle who then tells you that you may be the Warrior of Light of prophecy. At this point your options are either to follow the moogle and his prophecy or die in obscurity with the others, so you follow the moogle. You are then led around the world of Paramecia seeking Princess Sarah Cornelia who will help you fulfill your destiny of fighting Chaos and saving the world.

One minor flaw with the plot is that the game mainly consists of fighting a series of battles against monsters with less variety than the the Heartless in Kingdom Hearts. The story will bring distinct and memorable bosses, but most of the random encounters are simply facing the various "Dust" minions of Chaos, which seem to represent the three classes and the four/five elements available in the game, so the fights get repetitive. Fortunately, just about every stop along the way also features a cutscene that furthers the story, some even have voice overs that make it more real, and some areas even have a walkabout area where you get to explore a little instead of just fighting, though they do tend to be disappointingly short. This may turn out to be a good story when it's done, but expect that while you wait for the best part of the story you'll be wading through the same repetitive crap you get with every other mobile game, just with way better graphics.

As for the interface, the gameplay seems daunting during the tutorial, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty simple. Tapping the screen will have you attack an enemy, you can use target view to select your target which can be strategic once you understand the element system. When you attack, you get orbs of one of four out of five elements, determined by your job. The five elements are fire, water, air, earth and life, each job can draw life and three of the other four and those three form the element drive. By default you can use the element drive to heal with life orbs or raise defense for any of your three elements. You can also use orbs to activate abilities determined by the cards in your deck. You make your deck with four cards plus a rental card from another player. Your card pool will form most of your strategy for the game and you get the cards in two ways, the ability shop and battle drops which correspond to the monsters you fight. A word of advice, just pick your favorite abilities from the ability shop and build them up. Ability shop cards cost ability tickets, but you get more of them during regular gameplay than you'd think so just splurge to make your dream deck. Battle drops provide the same abilities as ability shop cards, but the difference is that battle drops start with the lesser version of the ability and you have to augment the cards to three star rating to get the full version, while ability shop cards come at three star and can be upgraded to four star, which battle drops can not. All of that means you should just invest in you favorite abilities from the shop to make them the best you can. Once you get the hang of that, the game is pretty easy to manage, but I've found that cornering the abilities makes the game even more interesting because there is still some strategy, and having the abilities and using them properly become two different things. There are also job cards and building them up requires skillseeds which are provided by the ability cards so you have to have the right cards to get the right seeds if you want to get the most out of your job, but don't worry, if your favorite cards from the shop don't get the right seeds, battle drop cards will fill the void and fix that problem until you get caught up.

Overall, I'd give it a 9 out of 10, the biggest drawback is that the game is so big, loading up the game takes three screens and a few minutes just to start and don't even think about doing this on anything but wi-fi, data networks will kill you, and you device will get hot from processing. Once you get over the drawbacks it it is definitely worth it and deserves its accolades for best looking mobile game.Seriously, it looks like PS4 graphics, PS2 at least, if you're a fan of recent Final Fantasy games, this is for you, like they say on the load screen, when you can't be home to play FFXV, play Mobius on the go.

NaNoWriMo Riding the Dragon Week 4 FINALE!

I DID IT! Not only did I complete my novel for this year, but this also means I've completed my first trilogy.

I put in a prologue that explains some back story regarding Nathan, the changelings, and the spirits, I hope people like gettign to know the origins of these characters. Aside from that, there really isn't a whole lot I can say without spoiling the ending, so I'm afraid that's all I've got this week. I will say I tied up a lot of loose ends and settled the story, though there may be one detail I'll have to leave up to your imaginations even when you read it.

It was a grand total of over 51,000 words, so I'm kind of worn out so sorry about the short post, just wanted to let you all know it was a success. I'm also excited about playing Mobius Final Fantasy and Undertale, so I'll have reviews on those in the coming weeks.

NaNoWriMo Riding the Dragon Week 3

So my vacation started this week and I made a lot more progress. Ellen and her friends graduated from college, Jason is working for the Sherriff's Department, and Ellen is starting her own fashion business working with the other changelings to make purses, swimwear, and knits(cait sith love yarn and mermaids have aquatic interests). However, just as the core group is getting their act together, the rest of the city has begun to fall apart as the werewolves and wizards go into all out public war. Oh and we had a strange interlude where the dragon took on human form and we got a visit from the ghosts of Alistair and Tom.

That sums up the progress so far, back to work for me. Don't forget to play the beta version of 7th Moon the RPG at 7thMoon.co

NaNoWriMo Riding the Dragon Week 2

I have very little time to take a break from writing my book because I'm behind, but fortunately, my vacation starts next week, so I might get caught up. I am not going to waste time talking about the election, I may get back to that after NaNoWriMo when I have time, but I'm figuring I may just give up the blog, I'll just power through this month and we'll see where we are in December.

This week I dealt with Ellen's birthday which was not happy because it was the morning after a big fight with Nathan...a really big fight, epic even. Ellen spends most of her day taking care of the new changelings in town, which is kind of funny, then ends on a creepy note. Now I'm working on funerals for the Alpha Werewolf and the Archmagus. The werewolves and the wizards are not gettign along very well and tensions will continue to rise.

 I kind of lost time on Wednesday because my mind was distracted, and unfortunately it was my only day off, so yeah, this is all I got. So, that's all for this week. Last week I made my pinio abot Trup pretty well known, it's not worth rehashing, I know everybody either already agrees with me or they refuse to change their minds, but lettign my feelings out here is just a waste of time right now, so I'm going to enjy the therapy of writing and playing Mobius Final Fantasy which I will probably be blogging about in December.

NaNoWriMo Riding the Dragon Week 1, 7th Moon the RPG, Trump and the election

As you can guess from the title I'm squeezing in a lot this week, and yet, I really need to get this over with quickly because I need to get back to writing Riding the Dragon, the final book in the Magic of Rochester Trilogy. So far I'm only on chapter two and we're resolving what should have been the final confrontation between Ellen and Nathan. The enchantment that kept them on peaceful terms has expired and the fight has begun, but rather than settle the conflict in one final battle, new problems emerge setting up for the most challenging year of Ellen's life, but since I'm still in the processof writing, that's all I can say right now. Well, I guess I'll also say that Alpha Wolf Tom and Archmagus Alistair die leaving Jason and Ralph to step up to leadership, but it's even more complicated than that because they appear to die at the hands of the opposite faction, which may mean war...

Speaking of conflict among leadership, the election is this week and I am terrified we could possibly end up with Trump as president. I don't normally get political, I usually deal with entertainment, so instead of getting all political, I'm going to go over some entertainment info that happens to be relevant to the Republican candidate that is, unfortunately Donald Trump. Donald Trump had a show called the Apprentice, which, when it started, was a good show. The economy had just recently taken a sharp downturn, and when Donald Trump, one of the most famously rich people, famous for being rich, proposed that he would hire an apprentice to work for him in a reality competition, this was a big deal. Jobs of any kind were hard to come by, so this was a great opportunity, especially when the job is a chance to get in with the wealthiest company in America. The idea was that about a dozen people would do a day's work in a variey of different jobs, and the worst one would get fired each week until the very best would remain to get the prize. The best season, in my opinion, was marketed as street smarts vs book smarts. At first Trump favored people with business degrees who fit the position Trump was hiring for on paper, but this season, half of the contestant/applicants were people who had gone straight into the workforce and clawed their way up to the top without the academic prerequisites. What was most impressive about this season was that despite expectations, the college graduates did not sweep the competition, but rather the two teams remained neck and neck to the very end. It proved the show's premise, that anybody could make it. One scene stood out to me, early on, the street smarts team won their event and got rewarded with a dinner with Trump at an exclusive wine cellar, and one of the contestants dropped the F-bomb describing how awesome it was, to which Donald replied that he thought such language was unbecoming. At the time, this led me to believe Donald Trump was a respecable businessman worthy of respect. Then came Celebrity Apprentice. Celebrity editions are ratings grabs for floundering game shows and Jeopardy and Family Feud are about the only shows that seem to be able to work with it without destorying their integrity and ultimately becoming self-parodies that only buy a year or two before they get canceled anyway. The worst part about the celebrity edition of any game show is that the basic premise of the genre is that regular people get to win money and expensive prizes that they would never normally get, but celebrities don't need any of that because they are already rich, so they play for charities, and in turn, nobody wants to totally make fools of celebrities who are nice enough to donate to charity and shortchange the needy, so the whole thing becomes ridiculously easy, emphasis on ridiculous. Celebrity Apprentice took the show from giving ordinary people extraordinary opportunities to making us realize how inept actors are a everyday jobs and that they get overpaid for their total lack of skill. The worst part is the show never went back to it's original format, which I feel was important because it means that the endeavor that started out helping regular joes get ahead in business became about fame, particularly Trump's fame. Also, I'd like to point out how he clearly doesn't have the same level of public restraint he had when he told one of his employees not to swear. I dont know if I misread that moment and gave him more credit than he deserved, or if his time working on TV with Mark Burnett corrupted an otherwise decent man, or at least a man who could keep a decent public face. In any case, I just hope my readers take some of this into consideration, does Trump actually care about America or is this just the next step in a scheme of self-promotion?

Speakign of self-promotion, 7th Moon the RPG is up at 7thMoon.co not 7thMoon.com, that belongs to someone else and is unrelated to my project. Right now the game is online and apparently using my laptop as a server, which means it will only work when I have my computer on. The good news is that I will have it on to write for NaNoWriMo for most of the month and I can guarantee it will be up every Saturday night from midnight to 3AM while I'm live tweeting with Toonami, the bad news is I have to work during the day until my vacation starts November 16. I should be able to keep it up all day through about 10-11PM November 30, and also Wednesday and weekends starting between 9-10AM. Otherwise I can't promise the server will be up before 5PM. I am working on another solution, either an alternate server or republishing it as a downloadable game that can be played offline. Before I go that far, I want to beta test and debug any issues, so please bear with me, play the game when you can and leave comments about issues.

Remember to vote, if you live in Greece, NY I will be voting at the Methodist Church on Maiden Lane which is also a Pokestop and Pokegym, so I'm going to hang around after voting to drop three lures and fight at the gym for an hour and a half while the lures run their course, so feel free to chase pokemon and vote.

7th Moon RPG

I've been working hard on this and I'm too tired to talk about it, so rather than waste time describing it, how about you just play the beta and tell me what you think.

It's on my new website, 7thMoon.co and you can cut straight to the game here.

Enjoy.

7th Moon RPG update #1

I know I said I'd take break while working on the game but I needed a break from working on the game and felt like sharing, As it turns out making the elements was easy enough, but figuring out how the events actually work is harder. The maps were easy enough, I've got Japan as the overworld, and a really good version of the Shrine of the Golden Dragon, which is one of the pictures I'll show later. There's a dungeon generator that helped me deal with some more difficut areas I wasn't sure I was going to be able to map out. The characters were the easiest of all, I knew what they needed to be and put it together. Right now there are six playable characters, they can all equip armor, but Kichiku and Douji can't use weapons and only Hidariude can use accesories while only Keisei can use head gear. Hidarude and Keisei's extra equipment adjust their stats appropriately enough for character development, but because of Kichiku and Douji's equipment restrictions, their base stats are adjusted to increase at a faster rate. The characters are pretty balanced I think, it's just a matter of balancing the game around them for a good experience. Right now the trick is figuring out how to put in the story which is proving dfficult because a good wad occurs in just one place and the system is set up to add events by location, which means I need to figure out how to place a series of about five different scenes all in one location with a system that will only let me show one scene. I'm sure I'll figure this one out, there has to be a way to make this work. Until then here's some preview scenes.

RPG Maker

After the convention last week I went to Steam to get Undrtale and found RPG Maker MV on sale and downloaded that to make 7th Moon into an RPG. This has proved so addictive I may have to suspend the blog for time until I'm done with it. In fact, I'm writing this on my family's computer while I wait for my laptop with the software to update, otherwise I may not be taking the time for this at all.

Some may think RPG Maker is too primitive to create a decent game, but that's what makes it fun to me. I love old school RPGs and the graphics were a part of it. The graphics may have been the worst of their time, but I feel it forced them to make up for it with mechanics and story. I feel so strongly I actually hated FF7 when it first came out just because of the polygon graphics, I felt like they sold out. Indeed, many fans notice quality has been shaky with the series ever since, and I believe it's because graphics got better and more effort when to making it look good than play good.I have since forgiven Square Enix and embraced FF7, but I still love old school RPGs and their super deformed midget sprites, and making mine for my main characters with the character generator in RPG Maker and knowing what they will look like when I'm done.

Okay I'm afraid that's all I have time or patience for, hopefully next time I will be presenting you with 7th Moon the RPG!

Star Trek fan films

Roc Con was fun,getting off to a great start with Vic Mignogna walking by my table and signing my copy of Broly the legendary Super Saiyan, and I purchased a katana for a decent price, and that was before it actually got going. Then I was playing Pokemon Yellow and finally beat it using Ash's Team. But I digress I need to get on to a more pressing issue, Star Trek Fan Films.

Vic presented "Embrace the Wind" episode 7 of Star Trek Continues, his fan tribute to the classic series. The episode, which he describes as "topical", is about appointing a new captain to an unmanned ship and it's between Spock and a female named Garret. The question driving the episode is whether the federation is ready for a female captain and it's pretty easy to tell that Garret represents Hilary Clinton. Kirk is rather diplomatic in his support for the female captain, but he is driven by the selfish motivation of keeping Spock on his ship instead of going elsewhere, while Spock actually experiences the same motivation and everybody seems to support Garret until Kirk discovers that she may have a skeleton in her closet that makes her unsuitable and has nothing to do with her gender. It's a tense courtroom drama and I don't want to give away the ending so I highly recommend looking it up and watching it yourself.

Afterward Vic had a Q&A session with a moment where he had some trouble regarding how CBS is handling this property. They have rather strict guidelines mainly that nobody can make money off of Star Trek but them. Vic has been content to work within these guidelines, but some other fans haven't been as cooperative and things have gotten harder. I found out from another artist who had done promo work for another fan project that this other project was the root of the problem. We had a conversation about it and I realized CBS really needs to handle Star Trek fan films the same way Amazon has handled Kindle Worlds. I've talked about Kindle Worlds before so I'll skip to how it fits in here; CBS should start a website or alternate channel (YouTube, Netflix, something like Crackle) that airs these fan films. Just let CBS review everything for suitable content and distribute it on their channel and fans can pick which ones they like. The whole thing could be covered with ads for canon Star Trek works and other similar CBS properties, and if anything proves to be popular enough to be profitable, CBS can split the money with the fans who actually made the fan film. A model like this seems to be working for Amazon, and if CBS were smart they would try this. I don't know if anybody else is doing anything like this, but I think it would be a smart move for CBS. It seems like everybody has a website, but not everybody has worthwhile content and TV network websites can be among the worst. Having truly original content like this would be a great way for CBS to stand out and fans would love to know their work could be approved as at least semi-canon.

Live long and prosper!

Final Fantasy Record Keeper and Roc Con 2016 preview

I've been playing a game called Final Fantasy Record Keeper when I am forced to stay in one place and can't play Pokemon Go. This is definitely a game for fans, the "story" being that all of the records of all the Final Fantasy games are being kept by record keepers in some neutral world and the records are vanishing and now a record keeper named Tyro must relive all of the stories to restore them. The downside is that these stories are represented entirely by battles, the upside is that you get to recruit heroes form Final Fantasy to assist you and create your own dream team to fight through the entire franchise in the 16-bit glory of Final Fantasy VI. You get lots of customization options, from abilities to weapons and armor, and if you have ever dreamed of fighting Kefka and Sephiroth with a dragoon, a moogle, a red mage and a spoony bard, now's your chance. Otherwise you probably won't care and get tired real quick.I'm enjoying it because I really liked the old graphics and getting to see newer characters as well as old favorites in the classic style is fun, and I have played enough games to know what is going on so it's a fun romp down memory lane. However, the story relies very heavily on this nostalgia without adding much that is new. There are event dungeons that kind of shake things up a little, but aside from getting special bonuses you can put towards the main game, they actually take away from what little story there is by interrupting the premise with unrelated activities. Again, if you have had so much fun with this series that you have imagined putting together your own dream team and your own custom character, as Tyro can use all weapons and abilities to be whatever you want him to be, then this can be your fan fiction dream. For me, I changed the name to Hidarude, the closest I could get with an 8 character restriction, and he has Fira and Fira Strike, and if I can get Masamune, he will be my dream character, and he's already surprisingly kickass. I have Mog from FFVI and if when I get Red Mage and Dragoon I can put together my dream team and take on the FF multiverse in style. If you can't relate to this and think it's worth getting the game for that alone, you may not be the target audience. For those who are hardcore FF fans, download it to your mobile device now.

Next week is Roc Con and I'm all ready to set up my books, figures, and my promotional video featuring the voice of Steve Blum. I'm also excited for Vic Mignogna and this time I intend to remember to bring my Broly DVD for him to sign because for some reason I never thought of it the last two times I saw him here. I'm also very much looking forward to cosplayers and expecting lots of Harley Quinns, Jokers, Deadpools and Pokemon...okay so they happen anyway, but I expect even more this year, and I also hope for as many Makas as possible for Vic on Saturday. If you live in the Rochester area and you'll be coming, I hope to see you there, I'll give a full rundown next time, but it will be late because I'll be working the convention most of the time.

Pokemon Go and Cosplay Shaming

I didn't say much about Pokemon go when it first came out because I was busy writing Dragon Hand. It was quite an explosion, Pokemon Go is everywhere, everybody is playing it, it's even causing real world controversy which is actually a welcome change in the news from the usual election coverage. The biggest problem seems to be that cemetaries are upset with people coming in to play and not respecting the graves. I remember in college people throwing tailgate parties in the cemetary on game day, and one local cemetary hosts haunted tours at Halloween, but god forbid Pokemon cause any disrespect.Where else do we find Ghastly? Seriously I get it, but on the other hand some are embracing it, like the Colonie Mall in Albany NY which actually made a real world poke gym around the analog to the virtual location, or the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY which has six poke stops that they drop lures at for patrons to play around. Sadly the wave seems to be wearing down, but I know exactly why, the same eight pokemon keep appearing. No matter where you go, it seems like half the time it's Rattata, Pidgey, Weedle, Spearow, Caterpie, Eevee, Venonat, and Zubat, in roughly that order. At first it's fun to catch these and evolve them, but then you get enough for your pokedex and you're like, okay enough where's my Squirtle and Pikachu? The game's algorithm needs to get adjusted so that when you've completed evolutions for your pokedex new pokemon should be rotated in. I know Squirtles, Bulbasaurs, and Paras are in my neighborhood, but then why do the basic ones show up so much more often? I've caught over fifty and half are not evolved, so if the unevolved ones could just show up more often, I'd be happy, but enough with birds, bugs and rats please.One last note on Pokemon, the Magikarp; I came across an Asian legend that when a fish swims upstream it seeks the Dragon Gate and becomes a dragon when it passes through, the Magikarp is that fish and the difficulty of evolving it into Gyrados is meant to represent the difficulty of that journey. OGs know how hard it was to evolve the Magikarp ~20 levels with only splash, so the 400 candy requirement is the new way of teaching patience. And for anyone wondering about candy, the original game had a rare item called rare candy that leveled up Pokemon and they decided to pay tribute to that.

Now on to something sad, cosplay shaming. Last week a girl known as Bella Sparkles cosplayed as Harley Quinn and a troll decided to caption the picture "when you eat the whole Suicide Squad" just because she was extra curvy. Many fans came out in support of her, some even going too far with death threats against the troll, which is bad, don't sink to their level. But this is a big deal to me because Bella was actually cute and while objectively I would say she wasn't skinny, she still carried herself well and looked good and she should be praised for her effort because she really did make a beautiful Harley in my opinion and I hate when cosplayers like her get crap like this. When I was a kid, my mom, my sister, and just about everybody else had me convinced no girl was going to like me because I was a nerd and being interested in video games and anime would me undateable, maybe even unlovable. Now that I have seen the new geek culture, I am aware that there are plenty of hot nerd girls and probably one for me out there. But in the meantime, I have really low self-esteem and confidence because for years I thought I was alone. I know the pain these cosplayers must feel when they get crap like that and I know that it can be so discouraging that it can make some of them crawl back where they came from, which is sad. It's not just an irrational fear either, not long ago I met a cosplayer who told me she used to do Black Cat but because guys kept trying to grab her, she decided to crossplay as a male character and hide her feminine features to keep guys attention off of her. People, mostly guys, need to understand how special these girls are that they actually take the time to look at our nerdy stuff, find a sexy character and have enough admiration to dress up as the character and they don't even get paid for it, in fact most of them spend a lot making the costumes and paying for admission to the cons. They deserve respect because if they don't get it, they will stop. I don't want that, I want the girls out there doing what they do. I know they don't do it for me, fine, do it for yourself, you should. Even when you do something for others, you should try as often to enjoy it yourself as well. I wrote 7th Moon for myself and I want fans to enjoy it, I don't like people telling me my book is crap and I shouldn't be writing. Cosplayers go through the same thing. When I sell my books at a con, I enjoy watching cosplayers go by, I especially enjoy the sexy ones, yes even the plus size ones, especially the plus size ones. They make me feel not alone, and I want to take this time to say to any such girls, you're not alone. Don't let the haters get you down, you do have fans, and you are beautiful in your own way and nobody has the right to take that away from you.

One Punch Man

So there's this big show that's new to Toonami but already has legions of fans saying its hero is better than Goku. I'm talking about One Punch Man. If you don't know it is a superhero parody about a superhero so powerful he's actually gotten bored because he can end every fight in one punch. The first episode kind of wrings out every last drop of that initial premise as he takes on three or four different foes and makes quick work of all of them. It's actually quite funny but doesn't leave a lot of potential, the viewer getting as bored as the hero Saitama. However, there are more tropes to mine starting with the sidekick, Genos, a cyborg who logically should be stronger than Saitama, but somehow isn't. The running gag which continues to be hilarious long after it should is that Saitama simply decided to become a superhero one day and trained by doing "one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten kilometer run every day!"and within three years he has become the indestructable pinnacle of human fitness, even though he doesn't look it. It's funny because he doesn't look particularly muscular and yet he can overcome cyborgs and genetically engineered mutants like their inflatable punching bags. Each one comes at him as fierce as can be and Saitama doesn't care. Genos is the only one who gets it and has chosen to become his disciple. Most believe Genos is the superior, and it would appear that way except that in their first battle together against Mosquito Girl, Genos was bested while Saitama stepped in and took her out with one punch. Siatama can be a tool, but unlike everybody else, he's got the goods to back it up. In time Saitama finds a new challenge, public relations. He has saved the world on a daily basis but nobody knows who he is so he has to go on a journey to make a name for himself, because, well, he really has nothing better to do.

Now, out here in the real world, we have a problem because now fans keep asking who's stronger, Saitam or Goku. I say that depends, because clearly Saitama exists under a special set of circumstances which makes him superhuman. I remember once doing one hundred push-ups and one hundred sit-us every day, and unless it's te squats and the running that somehow magically completes the formula for superhuman, it's not enough to come close to Saitama. Now if we stay in his world and subscribe to the law that Saitama is unbeatable, then yes, he would beat Goku. However, based on what I've seen in every other anime, the second Saitama steps out of his universe and faces the laws of any other anime, Goku will totally kill him. Still, even though One Punch Man is preposterous, as the author of the similar parody Superfrenemies, I see it as a respectable rival for turning the superhero genre on its head and saying "WTF really?"

Sharknado the 4th Awakens and 2Lava2Lantula

This is a bit late, got held up by Camp NaNoWriMo and Suicide Squad, but still too big to be ignored.

Sharknado is the ultimate series of one-upmanship. Seriously, you think they can not possibly go farther than they did the last time and then they do, they find some way to go even further beyond than you ever imagined was humanly possible. Sharknado the 4th Awakens starts with a Star Wars style scroll to bring home the title tribute, catching us up as there has been a five year time jump during which our hero Fin Sheppard has been raising his son alone after April was injured and believed to be killed by falling space debris. The past five years have been peaceful because Astro-X has created a weather regulating technology that prevents tornadoes and therefore prevents sharknadoes. However, the technology is based around water based tornadoes and fails when a sand based tornado forms in Las Vegas hitting his casino that features an aquarium filled with sharks which seemed like a good idea at the time. It happens to hit when Finn, his older son played by Cody Lindley, and his cousin, Gemini, the obligatory hot chick in a bikini top, are visiting from Kansas. The Sandnado chases the Sheppards across the desert where it takes on boulders and becomes a Bouldernado with sharks that have rocks embedded in their hide. They reach Texas where they arm themselves at a chainsaw shop run by Dog the Bounty Hunter and the cast of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yes, seriously, Leatherface, and I mean the original actor from the original movie, takes a chainsaw to massacre sharks in Texas, and in case you're slow, his sister says "It just ain't Texas without a chainsaw massacre!" So good you can taste it! But wait there's more! At the same time, we find out April isn't dead, her father, played by Gary Busey, took her away from the hospital after they pulled the plug and rebuilt her as an upgraded cyborg represented by nothing more than an electric belt around her waist that now sustains her life while also giving her super powers and allow her to save her daughter and father-in-law, the latter played by David Hasselhoff who had been rescued from the moon by Astro-X and is now testing mech suits for fighting Sharknadoes. They try to reunite with Finn who is now headed to Kansas to get Gil. While in Kansas, he gets a chainsaw sword(YES!) and the Sharknado, which has become a cownado after pickign up cows from local farms, picks up his house and drops them all in Chicago on top of a witch of a mayor, who had said something along the lines of "I'll get you and your little chainsaw too!" her legs stick out under the house and they actually comment that "We aeren't in Kansas anymore!" Somewhere along the line it they attempt to stop the Sharknado by electrifying it and setting it on fire, making it a Lightningnado and a Firenado, although I forgot the order, then it hits a nuclear power plant becoming a Nuclearnado with glowing radioactive sharks. Honestly, the person I most fear for in this movie is Al Roker, who playing himself, actually had to describe all and name all of those variants of tornado and seems to be at risk of losing his credentials with the National Weather Service. Everything comes together at Niagra Falls where April is reunited with Finn and his father plans to use his mech suit to stop the Sharknado with assistance from two women played by his former baywatch costars and when the Sharknado catches up with them they run away in slow motion(dear God YES!) Hoff gets eaten alive in one bite by a shark as does Finn's daugther and older son, forcing Finn to use the mech suit himself to stop the Sharknado with help from April who has a swiss army knife of chainsaws and lasers in her prosthetic hand and rocket thrusters in her feet, and Finn ends up being eaten by a shark too(this is his third time being eaten by a shark BTW). Then comes the coupe de grace of Sharknado 4, the sharks that at the Sheppard family eat each other, whle and alive and are inturn eaten by a whale, then little Gil uses his mini-chainsaw(because all the Shappards get a chainsaw, semper paratus) to cut open the sharks and reveal the entire family is still alive! BUT WAIT, THERE'S STILL MORE! Finn is clinging to life and Hoff has to perform CPR and in desperation they try to defribrillate him using April's power belt and two small sharks as paddles! And then the Eiffel Tower lands with Nova standing on it and Finn responds "This isn't over yet." Extend the WTF meter for Sharknado 5 because this one broke it!

That was the good, now for the bad. Among the cameos in Sharknado 4 was Steve Gutenberg talking about "spiders in Fort Lauderdale" which can only mean one thing 2Lava2Lantula, the sequel to last year's Lavalantula, the heir apparent to Sharknado. There was a lot of promise to live up to and unlike Sharknado, the hype was not real. Lavalantula was about fire breathing giant spiders in Los Angeles, now it's in Fort Lauderdale where Gutenberg's stepdaughter is taking a break from school where she's majoring in geology, which happens to be the critical science need to locate the subterranean spider queen. The suspense of the first film is gone now, as everyone is prepared with liquid nitrogen guns and Gutenberg's only new contribution is to grumble in a bad impersonation of Vin Diesel. It's not bad by SyFy standards, it's just that it could have stepped up it's game more like Sharknado did and it didn't, so I don't know if they'll try again, but I know I don't really care.

Suicide Squad

I've had a few things to talk about since I just finished my book, Foreworld Saga: Dragon Hand which should be up in the next few days, but since all the critics are giving Suicide Squad bad reviews, I thought I'd put that on the top of my to do list.

Suicide Squad is a good movie, but it helps if you know who's in it and where they fit in the DC universe. The thing is these are all villains that made their first appearances causing trouble for all the  superheros, but they were so cool, we, the fans got a soft spot for them and want to see them redeemed. DC decided that the way to redeem these bad boys and girls was to put them together on the Suicide Squad, a group run by government agent Amanda Waller, who is frankly the worst one of all. She is cold as ice, but she gets the job done. As for the others, the first character we are introduced to is Deadshot, the most accurate marksman in the world who works as a hitman. He goes to prison for a $2 million job, but he's sympathetic because he has a daughter and he does it all for her. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, we have El Diablo, a pyrokinetic who became a powerful criminal who lost his temper and killed his family one night, then gave himself up tot he authorities, because what's the point of having all the power in the world if it cost you the only thing that matters? El Diablo is really the best part of the story, he exemplifies what it's all about, a bad guy trying to be good. WHat sets him apart from everyone is he has already sought the path of redemption, the others have to be forced to do the right thing, he actually wants to do the right thing. Then there's Killer Croc who is familiar to fans from the 90's when he was on the animated series alot, he's an unfortunate situation, he was born with atavistic hyperkeratosis, so he's actually part crocodile for no reason other than a random genetic defect, and he became a monster inside to match what people treated him like on the outside, but his story is downplayed to the point that the only time that he's important is when he swims through a flooded subway. Then there's Captain Boomerang and Slipknot who are pretty worthless, especially Slipknot, who is introduced last and only lasts long enough to die trying to get away proving the nano bombs in ther necks are for real. This group is held together by Colonel Rick Flagg and Katana who are not bad guys but get stuck working with them anyway. Katana is another obscure character, she takes her name from the Soul Stealer, a sword that killed her husband and trapped his soul and then she used it to avenge him by killing the guy who ordered his death in the first place, and now she still uses it to fight and kill whoever Flagg orders her to. Rick is not so much a superhero as the model soldier that Captain America could have been if he had just been a good soldier instead of a scienc experiment. Rick's problem is that Waller had him bring in the last member of the Suicide Squad, her special pet, The Enchantress, and he fell in love with her. The Enchantress is most definitely the most powerful one in the group, so much that she becomes the antagonist of the movie. The Enchantress is actually two people, archaeologist Dr. June Moon(because her parents hate her, apparently) and an extradimensional goddess who possesses her, but has a weakness, a heart that is seperated from her body that allows Waller to control her. What Waller doesn't count on is Enchantress releasing her brother who helps set her free and they terrorize Midway City. Relly she want to take over the world, she picks this city for one reason only, because it's where Waller is and she can start by taking revenge on her and reclaiming her heart so she can be free.

No, I did not forget about Harley Quinn, it's just that she deserves her own section. Harely is the Joker's girlfriend, introduced in the 90's animated series. Usually when comics get adapted, anything new added in for the adaptation is not recognized by the original creator and it's ignored, but Harley was unique. The Joker had a plan to pop out of a cake to ambush some police officers, but the showrunners wanted to have a girl pop out of the cake and gave him a minion tailor made just for this. That gilr was Harley Quinn and took on a life of her own, developing a bizzarre backstory in which she was actually a doctor treating the Joker at Arkham Asylum, but fell in love with him and became the Bonnie to his Clyde. She got put in the comics and has a rabid following, leading to the true purpose of Suicide Squad, redeeming Harley Quinn. This is her first time on the big screen and this is a critical point in Harley's development, because when Harley joins the Suicide Squad, we see she has potential for good, which creates a very special situation in which she gets to play hero with the good guys, the very same good guys that she used to try to kill and put her in prison in the first place. This movie doesn't show that future very well, but fans know that now that she has been introduced, she's in play for any future films. The truth is Harley is actually a very sweet character, the example of "loyal to a fault" her fault being that her loyalty was to a bad man who taught her to do bad things. She, like many of the squad, does the wrong thing for the right reasons. Throughout the movie she shows she has a good heart and loves the people in her life, but the Joker corrupted her, and while she still is motivated to do right by those she cares about, she has lost her moral compass beyond that sense of loyalty, so if you get on her bad side, you are so screwed. She spends a lot of the fight scenes using just a baseball bat, infrequently using a revolver that has a barrel with alernating "LOVE" and "HATE" engravings. She can be a badass, but you have to respect the purity of her motivation. Margot Robbie does a great job playing her, portraying her personality, and her unique accent, which has not been shown well in promotions, do not believe the previews, when she says "Puddin" and "Mr. J." she has the accent down pat.

Ultimately this movie is about showing the best in the worst of us, and sometimes the worst in the best of us. Don't trust the critics, go see the movie and judge for yourself, you'll be glad you did.

Camp WriMo: Dragon Hand Week 5 and Sharknado

Camp Wrimo is almost over and I will not meet my 50,000 word goal, but I did make a lot of progress on my book Dragon Hand and it will probably be up on Amazon soon. The basic idea is that this is Final Fantasy set in real world history with the magic toned down to something that is actually plausible given what we understand is scientifically possible. The main charcter is a dragoon assisted by a spoony bard and an alchemist named Cid who protect a princess who learns some healing techniques and connects to Carbuncle, Fenrir, Alexander, Shiva, Bahamut, and Siren. Together they fight Siegfried, Gilgamesh and the Four Holy Beasts, the latter in the form of Mongol Generals. So far I'd say it has turned out well, so look it up when it comes out in the next few weeks.

The othe rbig news is Sharknado the 4th Awakens! It is so awesome, next week's post will probably be a review, for now all I can say is tune in to SyFy Sunday July 31 at 8PM to find out if April lived or died and what the hell they are going to do now. I know this much, Robert Herjavec and his fiancee Kym Johnson will be playing astrophysicists, stretching the movie's credibility. They are only a few of the cameos, plus, the Hoff is back! Oh, it's gonna be good!

Camp WriMo: Dragon Hand Week 4

So I'v been tryign to get back on track with writing but it hasn't been easy. I finished a chapter following Claude, Cidolfas, and Gilbert with the Cumans and started on a chapter with Catherina and Raidne. I think I'm doing good with this chapter, explaining the Binders as best I possibly can and puttign in some interesting twists, but I really need to get back to it and finish the chapter and switch back to Claude. Soon the foursome should get back together. I really am on a time crunch, so I'm afraid that's all for this week.

Pokemon Go and Tracfone

So you were probably expecting an update for Dragon Hand...yeah, right, like that was happening this week or that you'd care if it was. No,this was the week of Pokemon Go, and sadly, my story of distraction form my true goal of writing is not even of Pokemon hunting itself, but of getting a phone that actually worked for this app.

You see, I have Tracfone. It all started one Christmas when I opened a gift and found a cell phone I was sure I'd never use, and except for emergencies, I didn't use it for years. I have upgraded it a few times, but I realy never felt the need to use a real phone until now. Yes, Pokemon Go is the app that encouraged me to get a real smartphone. For those of you who don't know, Tracfone is a pay as you go cell phone, better known as a burner phone. It is shit. They produce cell phones that are one generation behind the networks and even when they have apps, they are cheap knockoffs of real apps. I swear I had Pizza Ninja instead of Fruit Ninja, same mechanics only you chop pizza ingredients instead of fruit, and it's slowerso it's easier. Like I said it's crap, and it doesn't run Pokemon Go. In about a year it might have Digimon. But at one point I worked for Verizon and saw what contracts look like and I sure as hell wasn't getting in on that. The one upside is that they have a bring your own plan now so that you can make any phone a Tracfone so you can get a phone that actually gets real apps and does shit. The downside of this is that to make this happen you need to buy a special sim card. Well, here's how it went down for me:

I first bought a new Tracfone believing it might work, it did not. I went to Best Buy to get a new phone (Motorola) but I was in a bind because I had already switched the number to the new Tracfone and was unable to switch it back, which meant I had three phones and needed to switch the number to the newest before I could get rid of the one I didn't want. The Best Buy I went to told me that they while they had the phone I needed, they did not have the sim card I needed, I would have to go to another Best Buy. I went there and they said it would take time to switch my number so I was stuck waiting until that could happen. Well, there was some miscommunication and the person who ended up helping me screwed up the transfer and my new phone didn't work and I temporarily lost my number. This means I had to go back and try again, and it took an hour and a half for the lost number to be restored. So, after four days, I finally got a phone that works.

I am Hidariude on Pokemon Go, my starter was a Squirtle. It was worth the trouble, but should anythign go wrong with this phone, God forbid, I am going to break down and get a contract because Tracfone SUCKS! The sim card kit is bull shit to get more money from people who don't buy their shit phones from this shit company. If anyone form Tracfone is reading this, don't take it out on me, fix your shitty company and take responsibility for your crap system.

Now, back to writing and Pokemon hunting.

Camp WriMo: Dragon Hand Week 2

So this week I didn't really make a lot of progress, I got in part of a chapter with Claude and his companions hunting a boar and meeting the Cumans. To make up for my failure in writing I thought I'd give you some character profiles, and yes this is wishful thinking for a video game adpatation. In case I forgot to mention, this is supposed to be a historically accurate Final Fantasy.

Claude Dragonhand - Born with atavistic hyperkeratosis that made his left arm scaly and his fingernails hard and claw like, earning him the surname Dragonhand. abandoned by his birth family and raised by the Shield Brethren, specifically Cidolfas Da Vinci the alchemist. He has trained to use spears and swords, some times at the same time. Special skills include:

Jump - aerial combat, vaulting himself using his spear and sing the momentum to complete a devastating attack.

Throw - throwing his spear or a knife or dagger

Cidolfas Da Vinci - An alchemist, a young man in association with the Shield Brethren when he found Claude as a baby, now older and wiser, making or a fine mentor for his young charge. He has advanced knowledge of chemistry and can use alchemy to perform almost supernatural feats by the standards of those around him. His weapon of choice is his quarterstaff. Special skills include:

Mix - combining chemical components to create new more complex chemical weapons or aids as the situation calls for it.

Black Magic - in his youth he dabbled in the forbidden arts, eventually reforming to focus on alchemy occasionally he can still call upon old knowledge when desperate times call for desperate measures.

Gilbert "The Spoony" MacMuirich - A Scottish bard, recording this story for prosperity, a lifelong friend of Claude and Cidolfas. He has a tendency to break into songs that may or may not be helpful. His weapon of choice is a knife, also instruments. Special skills include:

Song - he has use of four specific songs tied to the instruments he uses, Lullaby with his harp to put enemies to sleep, Warcry with his horn to bolster allies increasing speed and strength, Serenade with his lute to charm his foes, and his signature "Spoony Diddy" to muddle his foes with his spoons.

Mug - steal from his foes as he fights them, making use of their weapons agianst them in combat

Catherina of Hungary - Princess of Hungary, seperated from her family, she becomes associated with the Binders and becomes an ally of the Shiled Brethen. Cidolfas teaches her to use a quarterstaff. SHe also gets a hold of Medical Materia and learns skills that make her an asset. Special skills include:

Medic - using apothecary skills to help Claude primarily, and also to a lesser extent her other allies as well.

Summon - she becomes bound to the souls of certain individuals and calls upon their power i time of need. Primarily she calls upon Alexander the Apothecary she inherited the Medical Materia from, Raidne the Siren who passed on the bound lore to her, Shiva the Shield Maiden who later mentors her as a warrior, Carbuncle the stray cat she adopts on her journey, Fenrir the wolf she meets with the Cumans, and Bahamut the dragon hatchling she meets toward the end of her journey.

Camp WriMo: Dragon Hand Week 1

I have mentioned this before, I am working on a fanfiction for the Foreworld Saga, and now that Camp WriMo is upon us, I will be using this to get my rear in gear and get this book done. So far I managed to bang out about five chapters. I have introduced Claude Dragonhand, a Shield Brethren knight with atavistic hyperkeratosis that gives him his surname with a scaly hand who is proficient with sword and spear, I have also introduced his mentor Cid, Gilbert the Spoony Bard, Gilgamesh the Persian Herald of the Mongols, Siegfried the Livonian, Raidne the Binder, and of course Princess Catherina of Hungary.

The story begins with Claude, Cid, and Gilbert saving Princess Catherina from Mongols while escaping the Battle of Mohi where the Mongoliad begins. Soon after they fight the first of four Mongol generals who is accompanied by Gilgamesh. They defeat the general but Gilgamesh gets away. They reunite Catherina with her family but now they meet Siegfired who is from a rival order and wants to take down Claude. Before that matter can be settled, Gilgamesh returns with the second of the four generals and another battle ensues. Following the battle, Catherina meets Raidne and they end u continue on the journey Catherina thought was over. That's where I left off at the time of this writing, so now I need to get back to work and I'll get back to you with another update next week.

Capitalism is lie

I have seen some friends posting about capitalism and socialism and I feel compelled to explain what I understand about capitalism, first off that it is a lie, or at least that we tend to buy into it because of a lie, the lie being that everyone can succeed and be rich.This is not true, at least, not the way many people believe. It is true that capitalism is a system that give the everyone the chance to succeed and be rich, but it is not true that everybody will be able to achieve it at the same time. Capitalism is dependent on the same structure as every other system in the world, for the top 1% to have everything at the expense of the other 99%. This is because wealth is a relative measure, in order to have rich, there must be poor, in order for anyone to succeed in this structure they must do it at the expense of others, this is an unavoidable truth. The only exception is socialism, but we are generally afraid of socialism because the prime example of socialism we have to measure the system by is communism which in pratice has been communist dictatorships which are ultimately capitalism skewed to an extreme. Communism fails because it is not pure socialism as it was menat to be but an extreme monarchy in which on person gets everything and everyone else gets to share what is left equally, and that's not much, and they excuse it because they claim they desrerve it for the responsibility of taking care of everybody else. This stems from an innate, natural problem with any social strucure, but more on that later, first let me explain socialism.

Socialism is actually the idea that resources are allocated equally among everyone. This is a good idea, it takes care of everybody, if it's done right. The reason it doesn't seem to work, the reason we're all afraid of this is, if we do the right thing and take care of everybody, there will be no more rich. This is bad news for rich people and anyone who aspires to be rich. In socialism, we need to be responsible enough to make sure that our resources first go to important things like healthcare and food and housing for anyone and everyone who may need it, including those who may not be able to afford it under capitalist circumstances. This would mean using tax money to benefit the poor, and that money will probably come from the rich. The rich hate this because they work hard for their money and they don't want it taken by free loaders. They explain this to the rest of us and make us feel like it's not in our best interests because there is no point in working hard if your money is going to people who don't work. There are a few flaws with this argument that many do not think about, they just take the "I work hard for my money and I don't want it going to free loaders" argument at face value. The truth is, socialism generally seeks to make sure everyone does their fair share, run properly it does not support freeloaders, it provides for people who can not provide for themselves for legitimate reasons and makes sure the rest of us work for the greater good. Capitalism on the other hand rewards entrepreneurs. This sounds good because any of us can be entrepreneurs, that is the lie we are told. The tuth they do not tell us is that entrepreneurs need money, so if you don't have it to begin with, you're probably screwed.

Also, many of the rich in our country don't actually work hard, they rely on the labor of middle class citizens who are currently paying taxes because the rich have loopholes and the poor have no money to pay at all. Many rich live off of investments, meaning the stock market. The stock market is basically high stakes gambling. To understand the stock market, you need to understand that there are three types of companies, private, partnership and corporations. What makes corporations different is that the other two types are owned and operated by the same people, but corporations sell out shares to other people so they are at least partly owned by people other than those who actually run the business. This is not a bad thing in and of itself, it happens when a private or partnership business gets large enough that they need more money to grow and they get it by selling the company, and by selling it in small parts, none of the other owners have enough ownership to actually claim the company with any control, but they do put money in and they get paid back in dividends. The problem is that the stock market manipulates this by creating artificial value by having people trade their shares. This is the part that sucks for the rest of us, because when these stocks are being traded the money is not going back to the company, the shares no longer have anything to do with their namesake companies, they still have dividend yields to whoever is holding the hot potato when that time comes and those who hold enough shares have some degree of control over the company, but mostly the market is relying on people buying low and selling high. Stock brokers make their money by selling stocks at higher prices than they buy them for, and often do this within days, or even minutes, too little time to actually have anything to do with the company. This means that the vast majority of people who make their money in the stock market are not doing any actual work that benefits anybody, they are simply gambling and the stocks are no different than race horses, dice, cards, or numbers on a roulette wheel or lottery ball. The only difference is that the idea that somebody might actually do something productive makes the system legal. For example, I managed to acquire one share of stock in Hershey's, and as along as I hold onto this, I have a vote that I could use a stock holder's meetings at Hershey's, a vote which will be overshadowed by people who own many more shares than I do, but still, I do hold a share of the company in exchange for paying the company or at least reimbursing someone who did, and for that I get paid about $2 a year. Assuming I just sit on this stock, I am effectively a part of the Hershey's company and I am in some small way helping them, I have covered the cost of wrapping some Almond Joys. Hwever, I could decide to sell this stock and get some money back in my pocket right now, and if it was more than I bought it for, I just made profit. This is legal because I have purchased a share in good faith that I believe in the company and support them as a part owner. Someone else who also owns shares in the same way can do all of this on a much larger scale, and there is no legal way to discern between good faith ownership and high stakes gambling with the same resource, Since it is all based on something legal that affects major companies there is no way to challenge the legality of this practice without destorying the American economy. I'm not saying we should challenge it, I'm saying we need to recognize that many of the people who claim they work hard for their money are getting their money this way and leading us to believe that they deserve to keep their millions more than we deserve to be paid for actually working for those companies and doing what actually gives them value in the first place. Just think about that the next time the 1% argue about how we all deserve to keep our hard earned money instead of giving hand outs to lazy unemployed poor people.

Now for a quick history lesson: For most of human history we have relied on monarchies or in a few cases theocracies. If you don't know the difference the difference is that a monarchy is ruled by a monarch (king, queen, emperor) whereas a theocracy is ruled by God. Now, you may think, how does a god rule? None of us have ever actually seen a god, so how exactly does that work? Simple, the law of God is related to us through his priests and prophets who can communicate with God. In a theocracy, the basic principle is that everyone believes in God and questioning whether priests and prophets can talk to God is questioning God himself, so ask God if those priests and prophets are lying. God didn't answer? That's because you aren't a prophet, God only speaks to the priests, so now you have disobeyed God and questioned his chosen, which is invariably a crime under theocratic law. Convenient how that works? So yeah, theocracy is basically monarchy with a creaive twist that makes it less questionable to all of those within it. Relative to these systems, democracy is very new. Ancient Greece invented democracy, and it was practiced again to a cerain extent in the Roman Empire, but thn was largely ignored until it was reinovated in America when it was discovered that the six tribes of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy had figured it out on their own and it seemed better than listening to the king who lived across the sea. The problem is that the founding fathers of America decided to make our democracy more familiar and igestibel by basically making it a monarchy with a replacable maonarch we call a president. Someone once asked me "What is the difference between our president and a king?" He was tryign to make a point about government corruption by proving there wasn't a difference, but I replied without hesitation "Once every four to eight years we can replace our president without a bloody coup." Basically this is what we managed to accomplish, which is kind of a big deal. With monarchies, the only way to change leadership is to replace the monarch which gernerally require the death of the current monarch. With theocracies, the only way to change leadership is to change religions. With democracies, we change leadership by votign in a system that we all agree is open to any citizen to try. We claim the system is broken, but the ugly truth is that it's not really democracy, it's the constituents.

So now we are ready to go back and discuss the inherent natural flaw in social structures I mentioned earlier. In nature there are two types of animals, solitary and social. Innately we are all actually selfish solitary creatures, but circumstances sometimes lead us to find benefits in social situations. The primary situation would be mating, as animals that reproduce sexually, we need to get along with at least one other individual at some point in our lives in order for our species to survive. For some of us, sharing parental duties long term is beneficial, one can accquire food while the other protects offspring, and after offspring have grown up and left, it's easier to mate again with the same mate. From here we go to the family unit so the larger group takes care of everybody. This continues to grow to clan structure, then town, then city, then nation, then empire. At every stage, we need a leader, because everybody wants to do their own thing and we pretty much argue until someone lays down the law. At the family level, this is the elder, usually the father, sometimes the mother, at the clan level it's the chief, at the town or city level it's the mayor, at the nation level it's the monarch, president or dictator, and at the empire level it's the emperor. We naturally gravitate toward a leader, there must be a leader, otherwise we have anarchy which is a whole bunch of solitary people who are likely to act selfishly and the large population invariably collapses. Communism, or socialism on paper demands equality, which means having no leader, or at least a leader who recognizes he is equal while also mainting authority. But that doesn't really happen, because humans are selfish, and if we are in charge, we expect to get somethign for it.

This leads to the problem with capitalism and American democracy. Until the institution of American democracy, most companies just belonged to the govenrment, but in free cpaitalist America, the companies are free to do what they want. In believing in this freedom, we have created a blindspot that we are missing how companies are becoming empires. We use the term in a joking manner, but the reality is that companies are relying on the same social structure as government and they restrict us in the same ways, and by allowing them freedom we allow them to take over and oppress us the same as every other govenrment does. and they do it because of the lie that capitalism is for all of us.

Guns

I try to keep things light on this blog and just have fun with my inane hobbies of cartoons and video games, but this past week has seen events that I can not in good conscience ignore. Last weekend there were two shootings in Orlando, Florida. One of thses shootings resulted in the death of one girl, the other was a mass shooting that led to many deaths, none of which can be explained with any reason whatsoever. Normally I kind of shrug this off and accept the sd truth of how horrible our world is that these things happen, but this time I found it take on a new dimension. Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton took politcal action calling for gun control in sympathy for the victims. By Monday, my Facebook newsfeed became filled with propaganda from gun rights supporters who were afraid Democrats would take their guns away. It took about twenty four hours for a violent attack to go from tragic deaths to second ammendment rights. Victims had yet to be buried let alone was there enough time for their next of kin to mourn, and already we're more concerned about protecting our guns than protecting each other. I have never seen anything so obnoxious or selfish as gun nuts feeling they need to protect their own guns than take a moment to express concern for the shooting victims.

I have friends who even went so far as to make arguments for the second ammendment by comparing them to other ammendments as if there is nothing anyone can do to possibly violate this sacred ammendment for gun rights. Let us be clear, if you are a civilian you really only have three possible purposes for it, to hunt, to defend yourself, or to commit a crime, and I'm really only giving you credit for the first two. If you want to hunt, there are several guns that you can use to hunt that are at least as good as any automatic or semi-automatic weapon, if not better. If you are defending yourself or your home, you should go with a handgun similar to what the police use. If you get an assault weapon, this only has one purpose, to kill someone. The second ammendment was written at a time when the U.S. was new and so were guns, so they were difficult to use, but worth it to fight against a corrupt system. Now if you want to do that with a pair of assault rifles, one for each hand, good luck facing off against tanks, drones, and nuclear bombs. Military grade weapons simply don't belong in civilian hands, there is no purpose except to kill people. Don't give me bull about putting it on display or shooting cans in your backyard, you don't need an assault rifle.

Someone once asked me "what's the difference between our president and a king?" He was trying to make a point that our system is failing, but I was ready to answer without hesitation "we can replace our president once every four years without a bloody coup." We take our democracy for granted, but in reality, kings have oppressed us unopposed for centuries until we instituted democracy, before that, royals had to be killed in war to be replaced. Now we just wait four years and we can get a new guy, every eight years we get a new one anyway with no war. This is actually a pretty big deal, and to protect this right, the second ammendment was put in our constitution because civilains owning guns was enough to make the Revolution succeed. The world has changed and no civilian needs guns, it won't make a difference.

If you want a gun for hunting or defending yourself get the appropriate arms, but for the love of god, admit that there is no way any law abiding American citizen who is not on active military service has any right to carry a weapon meant for a soldier. And if you aren't going to concede on guns, at least give me equal rights to carry around a sword so I can defend myself from the gun toting crazies out there.If that suggestion sounds absurd, then you know how I feel when I hear gun enthusiasts cry about their guns might be taken away after a politician suggests we increase gun control so assault rifles will no longer be available after a mass shooting. I challenge anyone to explain to me how a civilian has any use for such a weapon other than to commit mass murder.

The problem with adapting to film

"The movie was okay, but the book was better."

"Movies based on video games are a bad idea."

I think these two problems are really the same problem, making a movie based on an existing story. For years the big problem was basing a movie on a book and everyone who read th book complained about what they got wrong. Then came Super Mario Bros. and ever since video games have suffered as much as books. But why? My theory is that it's simply very difficult to change formats. Books have infinite potential limited only by page numbers, movies have to fit between ninety minutes to three hours, unless you're Peter Jackson and turn it into a series, but let's not go there. When a book goes to film, some things just won't make the cut and they may be the most important details to the reader. Video games have a different, but equally difficult problem, they have a first person interactive element that gets lost in translation. Quite simply, everybody who plays a game plays it differently, so when you see the movie and they ran through a different play, it's upsetting. Of course, the biggest problem is that Hollywood just doesn't give a damn about getting any details right on video game movies, but in their defense it's not always easy. Bear in mind, many games are about one character with minimal dialogue, that does not translate well to the screen. Sometimes as they insert dialogue they lose track of what they are destroying in the process. Largely the problem is the audience, now that we've seen many failures, we are set up to expect it will suck and few of us have patience for anything. The result is that even when Hollywood does make something halfway decent, we still give a negative response. Hollywood just hasn't learned yet that you can't just slap a name on something and make that an instant hit. But consider some of the ideas we have given them to work with.

Super Mario Bros. - Two guys in caps and overalls run and jump through realms of bricks collecting floating coins and mushrooms that slide around coming out of boxes that, like the coins float in midair for no reason, while fighting turtles, venus flytraps and evil mushrooms, in order to rescue a princess only to be foiled by not one but seven cosplayers who all have the same message "Thank you, but our Princess is in another castle."

Double Dragon - Two brothers fight a street gang...eventually they get to the boss and rescue a girl, but only after fighting...a lot of gangsters... actually the same ones over and over again.

Street Fighter - self-explanaory, supposedly a tournament...there's a yogi that stretches beyond reason...a guy who is green and can electrocute you for no apparent reason...for even less reason half of the cast can throw energy projectiles...main antagonist is both psychic and psycho.

Mortal Kombat - another street fighter, only now we have more supernatural combatants, more blood, more violence...surprisingly the best out of the first four to become a movie.

Tekken - another street fighter, because even though UFC isn't as big as the NFL, we're going to bank on movie theater audiences paying to see fighting movies. Tekken doesn't really add anything new to the formula, no worthy dialogue or story, just fighting, little to no supernatural anything.

Doom - one guy fights an endless army of demons with a wide variety of guns.

Mostly I was disappointed by Final Fantasy which was made in house by the company that made the games and they managed to still screw it up, presumably because a distributor thought it would be easier to put out in theaters if they followed Hollywood's lead of marketing to the masses at the expense of the fan base. honestly these are the only ones I actually even looked at until Warcraft. I have heard of a lot of others, but aside from the ones above, many games that were turned into movies have had good stories to begin with. The problem with later games is that they have stories that were written for a single player to interact with, not for a large group of people to passively watch. Arguably, you could probably get better entertainment on Twitch watching someone actually play through a game than watch any of the movies based on them. But in Hollywood, executives are mostly older people who started before video games and still don't actually play them, so they don't know crap. These are the guys that approve the budget and they will not allow film makers to make movies unless they are confident in the film and they won't be confident in the film until they see a script, and as someone who has tried to make a script, generally submitting a few pages of dialogue interspersed with fight scenes noted to be choregraphed later doesn't inspire confidence for someone to part with millions of dollars with any hope of return on investment. To write a script they need to pad with a lot of material that doesn't make any sense. When you add in the director, now you've got a third person who has added a third irrelevant perspective. At no point, apparently, does anyone ever take what is filmed and compare it to actual game footage to consider if it looks right at all, and if it does occur to someone, it's not somebody in the driver's seat.

Personally, I say we need to let more fans make movies dedicated faithfully to source material, and until then, we need fans to relax or Hollwood will give up on us too.

Hunter X Hunter

This anime has been on Toonami for a few weeks, so it's time to review it. So far I like it, pretty by the numbers anie, but then again, considering how 7th Moon is kind of that, I can't hate on it. The show is all about Hunters, people in a fictional world with monsters and magical type folks that must be handled by specialists called Hunters. To be a Hunter one must first take a licensing exam which is so elaborate, it took about three episodes just to get to the exam starting point and now they are still in the exam process. This is actually pretty standard for anime, I have seen a lot where they like to testthe heroes, but this is the first time the story juststarts out with the test and drags out how this test needs to be passed for anybody to actually do the actual work.

At the heart of this story is Gon, a young kid with exceptional abilities far beyond reason, because it's sort of a rule that if you want to follow in the footsteps of the Big Four(DBZ, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece), you have to star an overpowered, overly optimistic, overly friendly kid. Next on the archtype list is Kuripika, the last of a dead clan that is seeking vengance, no word yet on exactly why he survived when all the rest died, but apparently they all have eyes of a distinctive red hue that can be harvested and sold for big bucks which was the motive for the Phantom Troupe, his sworn enemy. The good news is, he will get his vengance as soon as he passes the exam. Then there's Leorio, a prospective doctor with positive ambitions but in dire need of money to pay for med school, so he decided to become a Hunter because he has been told that this job pays better than any other. Then there's Kilua. a kid the same age as Gon who is also overpowered for his age and size. Together they try to pass the exam despite horrible odds since usually only about one every three years actually passes on the first try. But these boys will beat the odds.

I peeked ahead on Wikipedia, after they complete the exam, Kuripika goes after the Phantom Troupe with some help from Gon and they succeed in getting vengance. The end of that story dovetails into a story arc about chimera ants which sounds like a cool monster hunting plot. Then Gon finds out his father isn't just a Hunter, he's one of the elite twelve leaders of the Hunter organization. I don't really know what happens after that, but over all it sounds like standard fare, the Hunters seperate into classes that use powers similar to RPGs and every anime that has been the slightest bit cool.. I'm not really complaining mind you, in fact I appreciate the throwback. While everybody else is trying to be edgy, Hunter X Hunter goes back to basics and does it well.  It may not be original or offer anythin gnew at all, in fact t some extent it seems to be an excse to be lazy brainless anime fun. But I like that, so I like this show, and I suppoort the idea that somebody can just put together something like this and it can be successful. If you like this sort of thing then tune into Toonami and enjoy Hunter X Hunter.

TV finales this season

It's that time of year when a bunch of shows end their runs, either for the year or forever. Recently we had some good ones, and pehaps some that were overdue, and now I'd like to rundown my reactions to the ones that mattered to me.

Castle - This one was sad, but also quite overdue. The major arcs since Castle and Beckett got maried have stretched crediibility, and that's saying a lot for a show that requires a suspense of disbelief that a mystery writer is equal to three of New York City's finest. In addition to Castle's amnesia and Beckett having a secret life, individual one shot episodes inluded an invisibility suit, an immortal, a genie and the antichrist. Allow me to reiterate that three episodes this season left us with the possibility that Castle actually encountered supernatural entities, the genie episode literally left us with the possibility Richard had three wishes and since he used them for things that actually happened (the survival of his friend's wife and their neweborn child) we'll neve know if it was just coincidence or if that was actually the genie following up on that wink she gave him as she left, and the one guy did not die despite three fatal experiences and each time he was bored. I really hoped that the finale would have been for Castle to reveal that everything since his wedding was actually the first draft of his last Nikki Heat novel and that he had used everyones real names in the draft and that after reading it to everyone for the last two years he would change the names in editing. Instead they gave us a neat epilogue that was clearly thrown together in a few minutes, possibly the day of. Seriously, they had considerd coming back for another season and didn't declare it a series finale until the announcement came during Dancing with the Stars within an hour of airtime, and it's quite possible that the final scene was filmed during the first hour of that show. For those who don't understand how TV works, the show appeared to end with Castle and Beckett both being shot, which could have been left with "To be continued..." and open next season with Castle surviving and Beckett not because Stana Katic had the sense to quit already, but finally somebody had the sense to know the show should not go on and they filmed the epilogue which, if only one take, could have been shot, edited and tacked on while the show was airing. I did like Castle, but they jumped the shark and suffered from Moonlighting syndrome, when a show that relies on "will they or won't they" tension answers the question and there's nothing really left to work with.

Once Upon a Time - Thankfully only a season finale, I still like this show, and it's got some good points and bad points. For one thing, plot armor is pretty darn thick on the Charming family. For those who don't know, plot armor is a term used to refer to when a main character seems to be unkillable for no other reason that that the writer needs them alive. Hook actually became the first character to cheat death even when all hope seemed to be extinguished, but Robin Hood died. This was unfair for Regina, but they played out her story in an interesting way with Jekyll and Hyde and may have a very interesting arc next season. So far the main story is very good, my problem is what they are leaving out. First of all, Nova, Grumpy's love from the first season, when the hell is she coming back? Speaking of lovers, now that Red and Dorothy have broken the homosexuality barrier, are we ever going to see Mulan get her girl? We know damn well she was into Aurora, what about Merida? There was something there. And another thing, what about Emma's promise to help her friend find her father? They skipped that for a whole season, I'm assuming the Dragon is he guy, but they're gonna drag that out forever.

Blacklist - Speaking of plot armor, so Liz isn't dead? Was anybody actually surprised? The whole show is about the relationship between Liz and Red, if she actually died, the show is over. It was very creative to take this angle, but while they could fool the characters in conext, the audience should know better by now that the series would not actually go that way no matter what they say. Above all, this is a TV show, anything can happen if the writers want it to, never believe anything, especially in this series that has been nothing but deception and revealing deceptions and having deceptions within deceptions. As Red said in the pilot "Of course [you shouldn't believe me or trust me]. I'm a criminal, criminals are notorious liars."

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Plot armor failed someone here, Lincoln died and Ward appears to be gone for good this time. It was clever though for them to put out the red herring about that cross necklace and leave us wondering who would be wearing it, assuming we knew the answer only for the final episode to be a game of hot potato. It was also sad that we saw the headline saying Agent Carter died, a nod to the series cancellation, not that it actually connects because it was in the past. Sadly Marvel's Most Wanted also got the ax which leaves Bobby and Hunter in the air, so next season actually is going to be a complete surprise. One thing, they said six months later, but the season premiere may not be a full six months away, and since it kind of has to be in real time to keep with the movies, that means next season could open with some flashback/flashforward action leading up to exactly what is going on in that final scene.

Grimm - I don't know how many people are actually watching this show, but you should, it's awesome. The finale was perfect, wrapped up a lot of crap happening this season while leaving plenty for next season. I really hope Nick and Adalind work things out, but is Juliet finally fixed? God I'm shipping now. Think of the children, I mean really, Diana WTF? I mean really that kid is seriously...I don't know but we need that situation under control. Oh and Monroe and Rosalee are expecting, while most parents wonder boy or girl, we're wondering blutbad or fuchsbau. Or both? It was mentioned Renad was part Zauberbiest, but nobody else seems to be part anything so can somebody please explain these breeding rules, they make no freaking sense to me as a biologist!

I know Game of Thrones just started, but I need to comment on this; plot armor saved Jon Snow. Deep down, we all knew it was going to happen, but some how still the most WTF I have seen on TV. Actually, the most WTF was learning the truth about Hodor. I want to talk about it, but...ok, I think that's about all I can handle for now. Oh one last thing, my prediction for how GOT will end, Daenerys will return with her dragons to stop the White Walkers and reclaim the Iron Throne. She will take Jon Snow as her husband as his family leads the fight. I predict no more Starks will die and the only Lannister who will be safe is Tyrion because he's just too damn awesome to kill. If anyone deserves plot armor, it's that dude. Okay, now I'm done.