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cookignis · 7 years ago

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Shitty Discourse Salt Mine

0. Let A Bitch Live

I’d like to start this piece off by quoting a wonderful friend of mine:

“How ‘bout you let a bitch live….”

Don’t like something on the Internet? Don’t read it. No one forces you to read/watch or fap off to anything on the web during your free time. As such, just because you dislike something doesn’t mean you get to make other people feel like shit for liking it. Oh, you don’t like the pot roast tonight? That doesn’t mean you can climb up onto the table and shit all over it, ruining it for everyone else.

Stay in your lane and just keep liking what you like without being a dick.

Now that we have that cleared, I’d like to say a few things on some arguments that I’ve seen. I’ll be covering a few topics in this piece.

First and foremost, we cannot look at the game’s history and events through the lens of only today’s worldview if we wish to remain objective. A lot of FFXV’s familial lore (the Caelums and Nox Fleurets in particular) is based off of medieval families despite the ‘modern’ or ‘futuristic’ setting of Insomnia and Eos as a whole. If we examine decisions of royal families within the context of their time and culture, there are many decisions that would be controversial today that have been chosen with the best intentions or what was considered the norm during previous eras.

I. Child Rearing

We’ve all seen this before: Regis is a bad dad who neglects his son and distanced himself. Once we’ve demonized certain aspect of a person, we oftentimes forget to see deeper into them; whether it’s their motivations or culture.

In medieval times, entrusting babies to wet nurses in country estates distant from the royal court was considered a necessary safeguard for a child’s health even though this practice might separate the child from his or her parents for months at a time. In most cases, even if the child was on the premises, they would still be taken care of by the wet nurses as this is the culture that has been present for centuries. Parenting skills weren’t exactly passed on and most would treat their children as their parents did them; sound familiar? It still occurs today, we learn from our parents and raise our children in a similar fashion.

In terms of the personal feelings of royal parents toward their children, there were a variety of different kinds of relationships in both medieval and modern times. Such items are subjective and depends on the person at the end of the day. There are royal parents who took a close personal interest in the daily care of their children. Most often, royal parents took an interest in their children’s health and education but entrusted their daily care to others.

If we look at Regis, prior to Bahamut coming to fuck things up and tell him that Noctis is the chosen king, he spent a fair amount of time with his son (as much as a busy king could). We are able to tell that Regis did indeed care about and loved Noctis as he held him close and cried upon finding out the fate of his son. After that, he began distancing himself from Noctis in order to prepare for the coming days and deal with the ongoing Niflheim attacks. Was this also a badly handled defense mechanism to cope with having to send his son off to his death and possibly kill him? We say yes because again, we are going off of our perceived notions of what parental love should be by today’s standards.

Could Regis have done better and done more? Of course. His decision for Noctis to try and ‘live a normal life’ was made with Noctis’ best interest in mind. We think it’s not enough because our judgment has already been made.

Was Regis a shitty father who didn’t spend enough time with his kid? By today’s parenting standards, yes. But did he love Noctis? In his own way, yes.

II. Royal intermarriages, Alliances and Estate Gain

Royal intermarriage is the practice of members of ruling dynasties marrying into other families of the same status. It was more commonly done in the past as part of strategic diplomacy for national interest. It’s a practice that has been done worldwide, from Europe to Asia. Marriage between families act to initiate, reinforce or guarantee peace between countries.

As the lines continued on, over time, because of the relatively limited number of potential partners, the gene pool of many ruling families grew progressively smaller, until all European royalty were eventually related. As such, most royals could potentially be descended from one person through many generations. A prime example would be the British royals and nobility, many of whom are descendants of Queen Victoria of the UK or King Christian IX of Denmark.

Though in other cultures, many a times, inbreeding was done in order to keep the royal line ‘pure’ and strengthen the line of succession. In the Ptolemaic dynasty, all rulers were married to their brothers or sisters.

Hey, they even did it in Game of Thrones.

III. Gene Pooling

Let’s sit down for a moment and pretend we’re back in secondary school listening to our biology professor drone on about Punnett squares and fruit fly generations, shall we?

I’ve been seeing some discontent with ships here and there but let’s remove the ‘abuse’ and ‘manipulation’ for a moment and focus on another point of contention: incest.

A focal point disagreement for most people on Ardyn and Noctis as a ship is that they’re related. They have between them, two thousand years (or more depending on which Ardyn RPer you talk to) and possibly up to a hundred generations. Remember as I stated previously, much of FFXV’s lore is based off of medieval lines, so if we assume that all the members married relatively young and bore offsprings at a young age, more or less a hundred generations would be about right. At least they aren’t fruit flies, right?

What’s more interesting to bring to light is the alliance between the Nox Fleuret and Caelum lines. As mentioned above (Note: See point II), intermarriages are not uncommon among close royal and noble families and even more so with the whole oracle/king dynamic. It would be more surprising to learn if they had never crossed lines between them before. I would assume that it might have happened more than a few times considering the friendly relations and as a guarantee of peace between the two dynasties.

So, guess what? Luna and Noctis could very well be related as well. I would think that due to the amount of intermarriages that could happen, the similarities in their genetic pool is probably a lot closer than Ardyn to Noctis.

Let’s take a gander at this table. A person shares 25% of genetics as their grandparents. And if we think about how with each generation, genetic coding changes. Even with inbreeding, the code is not even quite the same due to a mutation in the coding.

With so many generations between them, we’re looking at bare minimal in terms of shared genetic coding here.

Conclusion? They share the same name but they can hardly be considered relatives. Luna and Noctis also could possibly share DNA, so by these standards of those against Ardyn and Noctis shipping, that’s incest too.

IV. Mun =/= Muse

I’ve seen this in the Tumblr RP community since I first started roughly three years ago. This incessant belief that if one writes something, one must absolutely condone it. Your muse is a jerk to mine? Clearly, that’s a personal attack. It isn’t, stop. Get over yourselves.

If this argument was actually valid then we can say that Stephen King absolutely condones murderous demonic clowns dismembering children. Or George R.R Martin is all about incest and rape in addition to brutal execution methods.

If someone chooses to write a darker theme because they feel that they are able to explore an aspect of their muse and have development from it? Great for them. Hell, if they want to do it for fun, that’s their business too. No one should be policing what anyone else does. No one is better than anyone else here. We’re all fucking nerds living vicariously through fictional characters for shits and giggles.

Something about that blog bothers you? Don’t read it. Unfollow. Block. Go bleach your brain with cute cat videos or dumb memes, I don’t care. Just don’t be a dick and put someone else down for liking something you don’t like. You’re free to salt with your friends in a private setting where no one gets hurt. Hell, I do it all the time.

No one holds a gun to your head and tells you to read what makes you uncomfortable. You make that conscious choice to follow this person despite the fact that they produce content that ‘triggers’ you. Want to know what that’s called? Winning the Darwin Award. It’s very much akin to being squeamish about gore and going to watch a Saw movie. Does that make sense to you? Don’t do this to yourself.

Let and let live. At the end of the day, this is a hobby where people come to enjoy themselves and escape reality for a short while so don’t ruin a fun thing for others. Respect each other enough to just click the block button, walk away from it and let a bitch live.

Thank you.

#;ooc #;lickin that salt

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kisaragizan · 7 years ago

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“Endless Blue Waves” [Aqua Force]

So today, I’m going to talk about the infamous Blue Waves and their support from G-BT13′s Ultimate Stride along with my overall thoughts of the archetype. However, instead of my usual one deck list featured in the discussion; I’m going to show off two deck lists with reasons I’ll explain towards the end of each one. Also spoilers, this will be probably the lengthiest deck discussion on this blog so be prepared for a lot. I will try to keep the profiles first with minor chatter about the cards like normal but the bulk of it is really just the differences between the two decks. It’s also for this reason, I won’t have an “Alternative Cards” section, but they will be listed in the cards themselves. So without further delay, let’s get started.

For the sake of simplicity, both decks will have two names. The first deck I’m going to cover will be focused on Blue Wave Marshal, Valeos as the main grade three. So I’ll be calling this one the “Valeos Variant”. I’ve seen others call this “Pure Blue Waves" or even “New (Style) Blue Wave" but semantics.

x4 Blue Wave Marshal, Valeos: The newest Grade 3 of the deck, who also happens to be the Admiral and the creator of Aqua Force is here. I was honestly surprised that he was even in Blue Wave’s considering I would think the creator would be a universal unit or at least have some synergy with Maelstrom considering Glory drew power from him, but nonetheless. As a unit himself, he’s pretty good, with his heartbeat skill being one of a kind: restricting the opposing vanguard’s power from increasing/decreasing from 11000 if you stride a Blue Wave G Unit. This skill is very revolutionary to Aqua Force because it eliminates one of the pesky counters to the clan’s aggression: damage triggers. Especially good in match ups whose clans/cards allow the vanguard to gain power on the opposing turn like Angel Feathers. His other skill, available at the start of ride phase: calling a blue wave card (said card gains +2000) to draw another, is really good to dig into your deck for pieces or key cards. Especially handy when looking for Brutal Troopers, which I’ll touch on more later. Overall a really solid boss card: focusing on aggression by restricting the opponent’s power.

x3 Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-boil Dragon: The original heartbeat of Blue Waves, Anger-boil is a good alternative to ride if you cannot find Valeos since he does come equipped with his Generation Break 2 in addition to his heartbeat skill to re-stand two rear-guards when Tetra-boil Dragon attacks second. Both of these grade 3s help reinforce the aggressive nature of the deck but in two separate paths. Valeos restricting the opponent down to let everything hit, while Anger-boil power’s up everything to make solid numbers. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses but combined together you virtually have a pretty solid ride regardless of whom you favor more.

x1 Blue Wave Dragon, Arsenal-fleet Dragon: This is the newest grade 3 for Blue Wave’s. While he isn’t a good ride target (the worst of all of them in fact), and a subpar rear-guard skill, his Drop Zone skill is what makes him a great utility card to warrant at least 1 as a staple. His rear-guard conflicts with Anger-boil’s 2nd attack (including Tetra-boil) but does allow him to re-stand and becoming a 15000 attacker. However, when he’s in the drop zone: when your vanguard has re-stood: you can soul blast one to add Arsenal-fleet back in hand. He’s the perfect discard fodder whether it’s to stride, perfect guard, or to pay for costs, because as long as your vanguard re-stands, you’ll be able to add him back to hand. My biggest gripe about Blue Wave was that it had no ability to secure stride fodder compared to the other decks outside of digging through the deck via bubble edge, draw triggers, brutal trooper, or through Bright shooter (via a boost on Wave-4+). Arsenal does fix this in a gimmicky cliche manner which is gladly appreciated.

x4 Blue Wave Marine General, Foivos: Foivos is personally the best grade 2 Blue Waves have ever received. His ability alone rivals even that of Tidal Assault, being early and can make the Tetra-boil (Anger Heart) re-stand with just him alone. That being said, Foivos still remains in the deck because his role in the deck is very crucial especially given that the entire deck is now Blue Wave, he’s able be active as early as grade 2.

x4 Blue Wave Marine General, Galleas: So this is one of the newest Grade 2s for Blue Wave, featured in the anime too. When Galleas attacks while you have Generation Break 1, you can discard one Blue Wave and counterblast one and until the end of the turn he gets the ability to stand back up with +2000 when your vanguard attacks. In addition, if Galleas attacked on the first battle when you pay the cost, he immediately stands back up. Galleas by himself is able to attack three times and fulfill the conditions for a Blue Wave vanguard to re-stand, which is amazing by right. My issue with this card is the heavy restrictions: discarding a blue wave, needing a vanguard whose original name has “Blue Wave”. His ability also clashes with many of the other Blue Wave re-standing rear-guards like Foivos and not to mention it has no synergy with Tetra-boil (Anger’s heart) since the skills will overlap. In other words, this card specifically exists for the moments where you aren’t on Tetra-boil+Anger-boil and with little to no back up rears. The cost and restrictions of the card does turn people away however the pay off is good so it’s up to preference. (Alternative: Blue Wave Marine General, Lucianos)

x3 Blue Wave Marine General, Medla: Medla (originally Medora so please forgive any mistypes) is the second newest grade 2 for Blue Wave. While she is an 8000 base, which gives me some paranoia, the pay off is again, extremely good. She has constant Resist but on Generation Break 1, if you have a Blue Wave Vanguard, she can attack from back row and becomes an 11000 for the battle she attacks. Again, a grade 2 that can hit from the back row on their own and with an added resist bonus, thus making waves flexible and durable even in the face of it’s counters: a good step to improve Aqua Force as I’ve talked about this before. While she is a Blue Wave, she’s probably not the best Vanguard to sit on but if you’re able to go for the aggressive approach with Foivos, it’d probably be best to ride her. I’ve played her at 2 and didn’t seem to make an impact, four is a tad clunky for me since there are some grade 1s you’d want in the back row, so three is generally a safe number to go with.

x4 Blue Wave Soldier Senior, Beragios: Beragios serves as Valeos’ Abyssal Owl clone: checking the top 7 for a Valeos Grade 3 and dropping cards whose grades equal 3 or more. Again: another Grade 3 search which, while nice, using this does more harm than good unless you have a stride fodder or another grade 3 in hand (preferably and ideally Arsenal fleet), you’re going to end up dropping some cards that suit better on the field. If you have no grade 3, I do not recommend using this card as a means of getting one for this reason. The reason why Abyssal Owl works is because you can ditch cards to fuel your drop zone for Ritual, not to mention Luard can free stride and recycle those cards back. Valeos - nor Blue Waves - depend on the drop zone, Valeos can’t free stride, nor can recycle from the drop zone to the deck. Beragios’ other skill is that he can re-stand if the vanguard stands. I feel this works better as a front unit in most cases or have a column of him, otherwise: without Anger-heart beat, there’s almost no front row unit that’ll be standing for Beragios to boost (save for the Vanguard), in most cases for this deck in particular. Other than that he’s a good ride target, something to call but his skills although handy do not shine a lot.

x4 Kelpie Rider, Nikki: Probably shouldn’t have to talk to much about this. The stride fodder getting reprinted in this set is extremely helpful since the only reprint it had was an SP pack edition which is already difficult to obtain.

x4 Blue Wave Shield General, Yorgos: Yorgos is the Blue Wave exclusive perfect guard that was surprising yet saw coming given the set advertised Blue Waves could be built from this set alone. It was surprising considering the amount of counterblast this deck does, I thought perhaps this would’ve been a reprint of the currently out of stock/out of print sentinel Ocean Keeper Plato. However, this card is not bad, as you would expect: it can protect any Blue Wave unit. His secondary skill turns any Blue Wave rear-guard into a back row attacker at Generation break 1, by binding himself from drop zone. Which makes Blue Wave’s endless assaults even stronger by having your grade 2s (save Melda) be able to attack repeatedly from the back row, especially good against locks. (Alternative: Ocean Keeper, Plato)

x2 Blue Wave Soldier, Bright Shooter: Lastly, I recommend Bright shooter because it keeps the decks theme consistent with Blue Wave names, it still ensures your ability to stride without Arsenal-fleet. Not to mention, Arsenal’s cost is a soul blast: the same cost as Valeos’ heartbeat. Granted you won’t always use Valeos, but there is a limit to how many times you can get back Arsenal-fleet.

Blue Wave Dragon, Dagger Master Dracokid: Dagger returns here as the best starter for this build (and I do say best sparingly). Originally, you’d play Bubble Edge here but Bubble Edge can’t exactly trigger in this deck in a traditional sense. Dagger is basically Bubble but with a counter blast one and a generation break 1 restriction but more consistent, especially taking into account this deck’s first stride. Dagger let’s you draw per Vanguard attack on Waves 2 or more but on the fifth Wave, the vanguard will get +1 critical. Blue Wave’s also have two other starters but one is a worse Andrey and the other one is not really ideal. in addition since Blue Wave rears can consistently re-stand over and over, Andrey doesn’t really fit here either. So it goes without saying: Dagger Master is the better choice here with some obvious flaws being his restrictions and is a good lock target/retire target.

x4 Blue Wave Soldier, Brutal Trooper: The staple critical of the deck and of course the deck’s main draw engine. Originally Brutal Trooper existed as a sort of luxury for the deck where, it wasn’t a must have in order to profit. However, the deck has changed to where the deck’s ability to get about anything and to maintain your defenses and resources is dependent of Brutal Trooper. A comparison can be drawn to Luard’s Belial Owl, where without it, it was subpar but with these critical triggers, the deck flows much better.

x4 Supersonic Sailor: This deck also has an counter-charging issue where Supersonic is also important here to fuel the soul and get back counter blast. This is especially true if you do not have Plato.

x4 Blue Wave Soldier, Bluegill Trooper: A blue wave draw trigger that acts like Marika, though the Blue Wave is important since there is a lot of costs that rely on the name either for discards, soul blasts, and especially counter blasting. Beyond here, I will say you can even go 6 critical / 6 draw trigger to draw a bit more to get anything you need considering how aggressive Blue Waves are and maintaining that aggression and getting those resource cards rival the offensive critical trigger. Additionally, the new Blue Wave Stand Trigger (or any Stand Trigger) is good too since you have many ways of attacking from both front row and back row that hitting a stand trigger won’t go to waste.

x4 Blue Wave Engineer, Refit Sailor: Set 13′s Ultimate Stride introduce a new series of heal triggers for specific archetypes that activate by discarding one for the cost of a G-Guardian: by binding another heal and herself from the drop zone: you’re allowed to either counter charge or soul charge. These are really good heal triggers especially given that this is by far a better heal trigger than Ihoannes whom only works with a specific G-Guardian and discards a grade one or lower to draw. As an added bonus, if it wasn’t obvious enough: she’s a Blue Wave.

x4 Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Flood Hazard Dragon: Flood Hazard is the newest G Unit for Blue Wave. At the end of the fourth battle and a Blue Wave rear-guard attacked; you may counterblast one, flip up one Flood Hazard in your G-zone, and discard two cards from hand to the drop zone to re-stand Flood Hazard with drive minus three. In addition, Flood Hazard’s Generation Break 3 gives all Blue Wave front row rear-guards +2000 and Flood Hazard gains Drive+1. In short, this is another Blue Wave re-stander but can become a Quad-Driving vanguard, but the most important note to take away from this is that Flood Hazard can re-stand as a first stride. Overall I love the card and it is a truly solid card but it does have it’s flaws. Let’s start with the fact that while he can be re-stand first stride: Flood Hazard is heavily dependent on outside elements to make up for his cost i.e. Brutal Trooper. The straight up discard 2 and the lack of drive checks on the second attack is not worth. Flood Hazard is a little bit better when he goes from GB2 --> GB3 on his re-stand because he does drive check one at least but at that point: I believe Tetra-boil is the better re-stander. Finally, when Flood is at GB3+ is where he truly shines and matches pace with counterpart due to the 2000 power buff on the front row and the ability to drive check four from the start and safely go into a drive check one. Ultimately, Flood Hazard is better in the situations where you have a lot of Brutal Troopers, if Valeos is the vanguard, or when you’re at Generation break 3+. Additionally, Flood Hazard is the reason why Dagger exists here now because even though the second attack has no drive check (if first strode), he will be given +1 critical which more often than not will be something to guard. Also a trivial note: Flood Hazard’s +1 Drive isn’t Blue Wave restricted.

x4 Blue Wave Marshal General, Tetra-boil Dragon: The original boss of Blue Waves. Because you play Anger-boil, Anger-boil + Tetra-boil is by far the strongest re-stand combination because of Anger-boil’s heart beat. Standing a column for free is super good and makes Blue Wave’s easy on costs. However, Tetra-boil and even Anger-boil specify Wave 2 so it will clash with some of the other unit’s. In addition, it isn’t restricted to Blue Wave rear-guards so you’re forgiven for playing essential non-Blue Waves but other than that: if you just want to constantly re-stand or if you have nothing else to play: Tetra-boil is the go to G-Unit especially considering he got a reprint in this set. Although, truth be told, with this deck: you can get away with playing just 2 Tetra-boil or even none if you value other G-Unit’s either as finishers (Lambros) or for utility (Commander Thavas/Sebreeze), since spacing is important and being able to have an answer to situations (whether it’s field management or cost management to use skills) is extremely important. However, if you do end up removing Tetra-boil completely, I’d recommend removing Anger-boil and adding more Arsenal-fleet since Anger would lose purpose without this card. (Alternatives: Marine General of Heavenly Silk, Lambros | Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas)

x1 Marshal General of Wave Honor, Alexandros: Alexandros is the newest G-Unit for all of Aqua Force. On Wave’s 2nd and 3rd only, at the end of the battle that he attacked, generic flip one card in the g zone face up: stand two units and give 5000 to both units per each face up card in the g zone. I’m just going to break the silence if the effect didn’t already do so: this G-Unit alone is amazingly good in Aqua Force in any variant. He’s a good first stride (especially if you don’t wish to use Flood Hazard without the necessary cards), he’s an unstoppable finisher (more on that in Thavas), he makes the G-zone flexible by being a generic flip: something I’ve always wanted. The effect itself is crazy because Aqua Force’s whole game plan was for the rears to get up to a specific wave and the vanguard takes care of the rest. Alexandros now in a sense generates more wave’s by making the rear-guards stronger and reusing their abilities such as re-standing, drawing, retiring. Lambros does do the same but you need to have a specific set up to reserve those abilities when they re-stood. In addition, this is a pretty safe stride to go into almost any time during the game, the later the better. On his own he does double of what Commander did first stride, later on he’s stronger than Lambros. For such an amazing card, why do I only have one here? Well, the other two G slots are taken up by Tetra-boil but I feel you only need one either as a first stride or a finisher ,if you first strode Flood Hazard. That and Alexandros being a GR might be difficult to obtain: so while two Alexandros is ideal, you’ll be fine with one.

x1 Storm of Lament, Wailing Thavas: With the introduction of many solid mid-range strides, Wailing’s original role as a “safe finisher” (especially in non-Blue Wave decks) can be re-purposed as just a niche alternative units as GRs should be. You still play one because well removes the opponents board and blocks their sentinel though you will find that at times, you probably won’t need to go into this unit as much as you needed to before.

x1 Zeroth Dragon of Distant Seas, Megiddo: Meggido is the newest “ZR” G-Unit that can be used by every card in the specified nation, along with it’s new mechanic “Ultimate Stride”. Dropping a unit of the same name as your vanguard to stride while having three face up cards in the G zone but at the end of the turn: the G zone is excluded from the game. Meggido’s effect is pay 2 counterblast on placement, choose up to five rear-guards from your hand or drop zone and call them to your field and they all gain 5000 and after an attack they can swap places with another unit on it’s board. An ability that represents the finer attributes of all three Magallanican clans. I’m not exactly a big fan of this card or any Zeroth Dragon in general because the punishment of not being able to finish your opponent is too steep especially with most decks being reliant on their generation breaks. Not to mention, Aqua Force has a plethora of finishers to choose from and all of which can succeed in even the most harsh conditions: lock, control. If Megiddo could call over locked cards: maybe. It also doesn’t help that counterblast two is almost a myth in this deck in the late stages of the game. Finally it also doesn’t help that Megiddo himself cannot protect rears from hazards like Lacus Carina, Impede Dragon and Defeat Flare who will almost guarantee the opponent’s survival due to the removal of rear-guards. So why is Megiddo in this deck? Well the nature of Valeos’ Blue Wave deck is an “all in, one shot” or so to speak. Everything from the heart beat, to Flood Hazard’s first stride, to the perfect guard’s the costs of other rear-guards: all of it is just speaks to me that this deck is entirely a one-shot especially since this deck has no plays outside of Foivos in the early stages of the game. If it’s able to profit then you live but if not and you aren’t able to kill: you will more than likely lose or be left with next to nothing. At the very least, Megiddo can give you a free field back and at minimum 6 attacks. (Alternatives: Marshal General of Wave Honor, Alexandros | Air Element, Sebreeze. Additionally, you can add these alternatives by removing two Tetra-boil’s.)

x2 Guard Leader of Sky and Water, Ihoannes: Ihoannes is still a pretty solid G-Guard because it protects your board and can be a huge shield buffer in any wave. Flipping a face down G-Guardian also helps contribute to Alexandros’ power especially one that you probably won’t use.

x2 Blue Wave Armor General, Galfilia: A new G-Guardian for Aqua Force whom which current stands as being the best G-Guardian for the clan. For starters she gains 5000 shield on 2nd and 3rd Waves: so finally we have a Wave 3 G-Guardian. In addition, when she’s face up in the G-zone, by paying a soul blast and flipping her face down: she can choose a card in either your damage or your circle and turn it face up. So in addition to being a strong shield, she can recycle herself and the amazing part is that not only can she flip up damage but she can unlock and un-delete your units. Simply amazing.

x1 Blue Storm Deterrence Dragon, Ice Barrier Dragon: Standard 25000 shield on 1st Wave and any Wave on 4th or more. I generally found myself playing one in other decks because Galfilia and Ihoannes cover the Waves where the vanguard usually will attack in but these G-Guardians are pretty versatile so the numbers is up to you but I feel two Ihoannes is good for the G-zone acceleration and protecting board.

Deck Conclusion

As I started in Meggido’s section: this deck is really a hyper aggressive glass cannon one shot style deck because it heavily depends on it’s first stride being able to generate resources from individual cards such as Brutal Trooper, Dagger Master, Arsenal-fleet, Brightshooter, Draw triggers. While in doing so, restricting the opponent’s power to 11000 to lock them out of damage triggers and power bonuses. The less key cards: namely Brutal and Dagger, that you’re able to use during your first stride the less you’ll be able to profit meaning the more vulnerable you are because of the costs you had to pay. I severely am not a fan of this style of play because while aggression is the name of the game, the heavy commitments need to pay off and those commitments involve hoarding Brutal Troopers. Me personally, I prefer having some flexibility in all stages of the game in case of match ups or if things start to go south very early. In addition to needing to have the correct grades, rear guards, the ability to stride, the ability to guard, you also need to hold onto these critical triggers: which ideally is not possible without you hitting draw triggers. I’ve even seen some Blue Wave builds playing 8 draw triggers which: I can understand why. This deck very much reminds me of Sanctuary Guard in which you drop everything on the first Regalie turn and if you failed, you had very little resources to work with in terms of defense, except the aggression is cranked up higher in Valeos being able to attack endlessly from all fronts without fear of damage triggers. However, that being said: if you are able to get everything you need, sure enough you will definitely have a significant advantage over the opponent and if you are a fan of this style of play of hyper aggression supported by eliminating power ups during the battle phase: I truly do recommend it. While I do prefer flexibility, I cannot lie that this deck does shine with everything comes together and has the tools to alternate their battle strategy and is a pretty overall fun deck.

Following the simplistic naming scheme, I’m going to call this next deck the “Anger Varient” because it does revolve around Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-boil Dragon as the main grade three. It does have another name such as “Original Blue Wave” since long story short, is the Blue Wave deck that has been played before Set 13 with just newer support. There is another name but I’m going to save that for later. That being said, I’m not going to cover too much of units I’ve already talked about: I’m just going to rush through and only talk about the units not present in the Valeos deck. Also special shout outs to two of my friends and teammates: Cherry and Anjaro for giving me the idea to try this out. Because of them, this deck is probably one that I’m dedicating myself to in real life until I’m able to complete Thavas.

[Grade 3s: 7 Units]

x4 Blue Wave Dragon, Anger-boil Dragon: While I say Anger-boil can used here, truth be told you can use Valeos here as well but I prefer Anger-boil more since Tetra-boil is the “go-to” re-stander of this build.

x2 Supreme Ruler of the Storm, Thavas: Supreme Thavas, originally known as “Champion Thavas”, is the greatest card to come out of Set 13 save for Alexandros. The obvious thing to note is that if you should ride him, your Blue Wave engine falls however his presence in the deck is pretty impacting. Supreme Thavas has a rear-guard ability on Generation Break 2, 1st and 4th Wave only, when he attacks at the end of the battle, counterblast one, and he stands. In my older deck profiles, I always kept one Thavas in Blue Wave’s to search him out while placing Nikki on the board just to maintain the ability to stride and never to ride. With Supreme Thavas, you actually have a benefit to having him since he can be called as an additional rear-guard. So good that I even encourage to at least run two. Should you have to ride him: he gives any unit resist and if that unit has “Wave” ability, it can attack from the back row. The deck is also built to accommodate the situation should he be the vanguard, since better this than Arsenal-fleet if you can’t get Anger-boil. You can put Thavas in the Valeos build but since Flood Hazard takes priority, it could clash with the other units or even with Flood Hazard himself.

x1 Blue Wave Dragon, Arsenal-fleet Dragon: I feel two Arsenal-fleet is good because again, having at least once is super good but this deck has means to get Arsenal in the drop zone faster for a more preferred ride. Although if you prefer seven grade 3s, you can minus one Arsenal-fleet.

[Grade 2s: 12 Units]

x4 Tidal Assault: Man of the hour, the staple of Aqua Force. Again, shaving off a lot of counterblast usage from the deck by having this guy here. I will mention that there were times when it felt like Tidal Assault would get kicked out of the deck but I feel that rather than completely invalidating a really solid card, the support across the entire clan made it so that you don’t need to have Tidal but more so as a want.

x4 Blue Wave Marine General, Foivos: Foivos again, being on par with Tidal for best grade 2. For added trivia, Foivos is the only Grade 2 in the deck with “Wave” ability. So calling him with Supreme Thavas will give him back row and resist. His re-stand ability will come from striding Flood Hazard since Flood Hazard being a Blue Wave will fulfill the conditions to activate Foivos and Flood Hazard’s GB3 is not restricted to a Blue Wave heart so he will be a Quad Driver which is better than nothing I suppose. I give credits to the Flood Hazard+Thavas+Foivos to both Cherry and Anjaro. (Alternative: Blue Wave Marine General, Medla)

x4 Magnum Assault: Magnum Assault a blast from the past. Originally I disliked Magnum Assault because of how sluggish he was and how awkward he’d be fighting against Link Joker since he’s not a standalone. But, Magnum actually has some really cool synergy with Beragios should your Vanguard re-stand giving you another column to work with. Shame Magnum is once per turn too. Although, the purpose of Magnum is to allow non-conflicting waves across any of the boss units, especially if you have to ride Thavas. (Alternative: Blue Wave Marine General, Medla)

[Grade 1s: 14 Units]

x4 Kelpie Rider Nikki: As mentioned above in Thavas, you can just call him, search your grade 3 Thavas for either stride or to call as a rear-guard later. Other than that, usual stride fodder.

x4 Ocean Keeper, Plato: Since this is deck has a lot of non-blue waves, having Yorgos would not be ideal at all. Plato is still the best perfect guard for simply counter charging.

x3 Blue Wave Senior Soldier, Beragios: Beragios I have three here because I feel that without Valeos in the deck at a maximum, Beragios loses a lot of importance outside of being a re-standing booster. (Alternatives: Blue Wave Soldier, Bright Shooter | Battle Siren, Orthia | Battle Siren, Stacia)

x3 Dispatch Mission Seagull Soldier: The Seagull is back in business. On call, you soul blast one to add 3000 to a unit and on generation break one; if he boosts on wave four or higher, you can add him back to hand. This helps Tidal reach those numbers, or can make Supreme Thavas a 21k column. The alternatives for this card are the same as Beragios.

[Triggers & Starter]

Bubble Edge Dracokid: The bubble shines best here because there are a majority of rear-guards that can attack twice in succession meaning being able to trigger the draw back to back on Wave 4th & 5th is easy. from Tidal, Magnum, and Thavas, you have numerous ways. You can alternatively put Dagger Master but is useless if you ride Thavas (until you stride Flood Hazard). (Alternative: Officer Cadet, Andrey)

x4 Blue Wave Soldier, Brutal Trooper: Again, best critical in the deck. However, in this build it returns to it’s role as being a luxury since Bubble Edge takes off some of the strain by drawing cards as early as grade 2.

x4 Supersonic Sailor: Another staple critical for the clan being a counter charger that I feel should’ve gotten a reprint.

x4 Blue Wave Soldier, Bluegill Trooper: Either Bluegill or Marika will do fine. You don’t need the Blue Wave name since there’s only one unit that especial counterblasts but their skill will most likely not see standard play. Originally, in older profiles, I used to play 12 critical Aqua Force for the maximum aggression because Brutal Trooper and Kelpie Rider, Petros allowed me to draw more and maintain a higher shield value. I will possibly look to try playing them again but I feel with how aggressive and fast paced this game is: you need to see as much of anything as quickly as possible from defensive cards, rear-guards, stride costs, everything. Drawing into heals or even Brutal Trooper & Supersonic isn’t bad since one is your defensive card and the other can shuffle itself back into the deck, while the other can replenish your damage.

x4 Blue Wave Engineer, Refit Sailor: Again, best heal in the clan so far.

[Generation Zone: 12 G Units & 4 G-Guardians]

x4 Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Tetra-boil Dragon: Tetra-boil is this deck’s go to re-stander because you run a lot of non-Blue Wave’s that makes Flood Hazard somewhat situational. Not to mention of course, you have the heartbeat of Anger-boil which turns Tetra-boil into the strongest re-stander of the two. Lastly, there aren’t any units that would clash with the skills of either Anger or Tetra-boil. Truth be told, you can actually get away with playing 2 Tetra-boil since you have other finishers to go into.

x2 Blue Wave Marshal Dragon, Flood Hazard Dragon: Of course, if you are able to go into Flood Hazard Dragon especially on Generation Break 3 or higher, I’d advise going into it since the fourth drive check is pretty worth. Same with Tetra-boil, you get away with playing no Flood Hazard because you’ll go into Tetra more than Flood in addition to other powerful finishers, but the quad drive makes this pretty solid to have. However, I feel I should mention that, going into Flood Hazard vs Tetra-boil depends entirely on your situation: if your Generation Break is lower than 3 or if you’re lacking a Blue Wave rear-guard: Tetra-boil is better.

x2 Marshal General of Wave Honor, Alexandros: Alexandros is your first stride, ideally. He can enable bubble edge to go off twice by standing up the other rears. Having two is important because if nothing else, going into the second one will be death for your opponent in most cases.

x2 Storm Dominator, Commander Thavas: Commander exists as an out to Link Joker but if your deck is built with enough back row attackers or with resists, you can side this out for Lambros who can serve as another finisher. If you don’t end up fighting against Link Joker, you can flip Commander for Alexandros. (Alternative: Marine General of Heavenly Silk, Lambros)

x1 Storm of Lament, Wailing Thavas: Like before, having the option to stop grade 1s from guarding and removing the opponents board is always a reason to keep Wailing Thavas but there aren’t really much times you’ll stride into him.

x1 Air Element, Sebreeze: Sebreeze was a card that you either ran or didn’t because having a space reserved for the situation that comes up very rarely can make him a wasted slot. But, because you have Alexandros, having Sebreeze for those situations are good because then if you don’t need it, you can flip him up. Otherwise, I prefer using the CB2 to overwhelm the opponent than to go for a very situational finisher that punishes me for not winning on that turn. (Alternatives: Blue Swirl Marshal Dragon, Last Twister Dragon | Zeroth Dragon of Distant Seas, Megiddo)

x2 Blue Wave Armor General, Galfilia: See below.

x1 Guard Leader of Sky and Water, Ihoannes: See below.

x1 Blue Storm Deterrence Dragon, Ice Barrier Dragon: So I only have four G-Guardians because of the space and that I would need to cut a persona card for another non-persona stride (preferably Alexandros) and a G-Guardian. However, Galfilia can recycle so if you do use all four and have another heal left, you can just flip her face down and refund your G-Guardian.

Deck Conclusion

This build exists as a more “all purpose” deck, being able to make plays early, mid, and late game with very little to no restrictions whatsoever. I feel this is rather the better variant of playing Blue Wave, because it’s aggressiveness while not hyper like Valeos, is still stable and strong and is very similar to the top contending deck, Thavas, in every way except with the lack of resist. This is also adjustable across different formats/meta a lot easier than Valeos because it can pick up cards from the entire clan as opposed to being restricted to Blue Wave only, making it very techy. This deck is also very reminiscent to my original deck creation the “Divine Storm” since it can utilize the Thavas engine while still having the Blue Wave bosses, however, I feel it won’t be effective because Alexandros essentially gave Thavas a mid-range play that Tetra-boil gave the deck, so it’ll just default to using Thavas engine with Blue Wave bosses which although good is not really good if you ride Anger-boil (because you’d have to force yourself to a Thavas stride to benefit from the Thavas rears). This deck does however still has it’s flaws since it’s sort of a “jack of all trades, master of none” while Valeos and the other AQ decks each have a specialty that it excels in better than than build: Valeos being the more aggressive while Thavas is more resourceful and flexible, field and attacking pattern wise. This build is “average” and flexible building wise and can appeal to those who aren’t able to build their ideal decks and still trying to make something with what they currently have.

Conclusion

Thank you all for reading this profile~ It took a lot of time for me to organize this because I wanted to talk about the differences of both decks and bring awareness that there are two separate decks for this archetype. These decks may not be built exactly like either of the listed builds but each one carries a different style and game play which differs across. For anyone curious: I have an original “rant” that I wrote to my team about each deck before I began working on this for more of my immediate thoughts of the archetype. I don’t think the archetype is bad, I still love it and I find it interesting that they went this route. However, this set actually resolved an internal crisis of sorts that I’ve been having to decide between Thavas or Blue Waves, and I finally decided on Thavas for reasons that’ll be explained in the next and final deck profile featuring both the standard build and the Wave keyword build. So stay tuned and look forward to that.

(See Here For Original Blue Wave Rant: https://pastebin.com/CwtdKJRp , Just copy the link rather than clicking the link.)

#blue wave #tetra-boil #flood-hazard #valeos #anger-boil #cf-vanguard #aqua force #zane-kisaragi #zanjoyner614

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ollybenson · 5 years ago

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Evaluation

Olly Benson

Curiosities Evaluation

Introduction

This FMP ‘Curiosity’ is the first time that I have been presented a brief where I have been able to largely dictate pretty much every aspect leading up to an outcome as well as the outcome itself. This was an exciting challenge to me as it allows me to explore aspects of graphic design and 3D that interests me most, showcase my skills I have learnt throughout the past 2 years as well as continue to develop these skills even more.

Given that the name of this brief is ‘Curiosities’, the only real guideline is that the project has to be based around something we are curious about. This guideline is very flexible as with the correct explanation in my blog I could have based my project around whatever I wanted.

While being able to work so loosely to no specific theme was seen as a exciting idea in my eyes, I did consider that there could be a number of negatives to working in this way. For example, I think it would be very easy to lose the general sense of direction at any point throughout the project. I imagined that it could be very easy to get lost or confused leading onto more confusion and an eventual break down. Along with this, without the help of a tutor I felt as though it could be very easy to conduct the wrong/unnecessary research with no clear theme.

My initial idea for this project was to base my theme around architecture. This is because I am strongly interested in architecture and it is the field of work that I desire to study at university. To explore this, I planned to create something 3D using at least 2 different materials such as wood, plastic or metals, as well as create some digital Illustrations to compliment my 3D outcome. I started to look at architects such as Malevich and Le Corbusier and this gave me the idea to create a modern 3D model of a building that had a removable roof and moveable modern furniture. However, this idea is very similar to my ‘Glitch’ project where I created a series or geometric, futuristic models of building along with some 2D digital Illustrations that showed a 360 degree view of one of the models. Whilst that project was probably my most successful one, in terms of what grade I got up to that point, I think it was important that I don’t just replicate it as it wouldn’t show that I am able to create work with a variety of approaches and styles, and would ultimately make my portfolio quite boring. Also looking at the timeframe I had, I think it was quite unrealistic that I would be able to create the model as well as the separate pieces of furniture to a high enough level.

Considering this, I wanted to focus my project on a certain field of architecture so that I could learn about new processes that I could eventually go on an use when I go into Foundation next year followed by university.

At our trip to the Design Museum, I got a collection of pictures of visually creative chairs each made with different materials; wood, plastic and cardboard. I was really interested in how these chairs were made and the thought process behind designing them. Additionally, we were asked in class to choose from our pictures of this trip and create some Illustrations in the style of Michael Craig-Martin. For this task I chose the picture I had taken of these chairs. This is what kickstarted my project ‘Graphic Chairs’.

Research and Influences

To generate some initial ideas, as a class we each collected 10 objects from a list of 30 given to us in a list. These were objects such as; something brand new, a house plant, 5 words to describe us. The reason behind this was to look at these objects and generate mind maps consisting of what ideas these objects gave us. For example I looked at an ice cream scoop shaped as a cow, this gave me the ideas of; children toys, looking at kitchen utensils in a graphically interesting way, dairy products (advertising, branding), infographics about food/sugar etc. Breaking down 10 different objects like this, creating mind maps and sketching, allowed me to generate loads of different ideas that I could have potentially explored for my FMP.

When we collected all the 10 objects, we inserted them into a display box that we had created ourselves that would be a visual representation of the contents within our proposal. I created my box mainly out of wood, but I also applied metal sheets around the outside of my box. These sheets I had tempered with before I applied them. This showcased that one of my strongest areas was in the RM/ WMP workshop. My box came across rather gothic as I added a chain and lock to the front of it, this gothic style wasn’t something I had initially aimed to go for as it isn’t my favourite styles. Despite this I think my box worked quite successfully.

Along with this, I created a few different mood boards that visually explored graphics that interest me; Clothing/Street wear, Advertising, Architecture and Sports. While this didn’t necessarily generate loads of ideas, it allowed me to identify what styles interest me most and made me consider how I could use my personal styles and interests to adapt my developments and outcomes throughout ‘Curiosity’.

As I was initially hoping to base my project on architecture, I went on to research renowned architects such as Malevich, Le Corbusier and Eliot Noyes. I looked at their different styles and approaches to architecture and asked myself questions such as; What Is more important; purpose or aesthetic? How can I combine both visuals an practicality to create something interesting? How can I use simple forms to create something visually complex?

What is more appealing; simplicity or complication? These are good questions to ask as even if my project change direction to something like advertising, these questions would still be just as relevant.

After this, we went to the Design Museum in London. This trip opened my eyes to all the different types of design such as street signs, architecture (materials and styles), gadgets (phones, typewriters), chairs and furniture. Most noticeably, chairs. I gathered a collection of visually unique and interesting chairs. At this point, I knew I wanted to base my project around architecture but I wasn’t exactly sure what area specifically. I think this trip was the strongest influence on my project as it opened my eyes to chair design and how it can actually be quite interesting when you think creatively. Before when I thought of chairs, I would think of something very simple with four legs that looks very generic. However once I saw the chairs on display at the museum I thought about all the different ways you can make a chair look interesting. Chairs are a vital part of buildings as well as our every day lives, so they still link in with architecture and would still be viable to put in my portfolio when applying for architecture courses for university.

Going to the museum was also important for my project as It was my first piece of primary research, as it was important that I hadn’t conducted all of my research over the internet using secondary sources. Once I had decided to base my project on chairs, I researched using books such as ‘Design as art’ by Bruno Munari that showed me a variety of sketches of chairs, exploring different shapes, lines and styles. Along with this, books such as ‘Design as architecture’ - Marcel Breuer, and ‘How to design a chair’. In previous projects I hadn’t used books for research as much as I should have and these books were very influential when I was sketching and designing my final chair, so in conclusion I think I am going to look to use books more than I have in previous projects.

When I was considering the composition of my chair, I researched famous chair designers such as Marcel Breuer and Charles and Ray Eames. Charles and Ray Eames were very influential on my project with their use of ply wood. Before when I would think of plywood I would think it was a very rough and messy looking wood. However if it is used correctly It can look very polished. Charles Eames used the process of moulding plywood using heat and moisture, however I didn’t have the equipment necessary to do this. Despite this, I still wanted to use plywood cause I liked the finish it gave. Along with this, plywood was a good option as the college have an abundance of it. Generally, plywood is quite cheap, so that means my chair would be very versatile and cost friendly.

To gather more ideas when I was designing my chair, I asked a number of students around class to simply ‘Draw me a chair’.That was my only instruction to them as I wanted them to draw their initial interpretation of a chair whether it be simple or complicated. This allowed me to compare the designs and analyse what styles and shapes people favour over others. This research was also vital as it was another piece of primary research.

Along with this, I looked online at unique chairs made from unorthodox materials such as rope, old cans or bottles and even full-sized chairs made from purely cardboard. This allowed me to consider the practicality of my chair but also how can I make it stand out? Could I realistically make it out of random materials? During this research, I messaged one of the designers on Instagram called Tom Price whom created a chair solely from rope that he had moulded a chair seat out of using a metal chair-shaped former which he heated with a combination of heaters and hot air guns. While I found out that It would not be possible for me to do this, It still inspired me to use a material like rope in my chair as it gave it a unique appearance.

Finally, during the construction of my chair I researched a number of processes of chair making. This includes different joining methods; What looks the best? What are the strongest? What is easiest to create? Along with this I researched different methods of wood sculpting and sanding; the artist Haroshi opened my eyes to a different type of sculpting that I had never thought of before. Additionally, I researched the different types of varnishes/finishing oils to eventually determine which one I would apply to my finished chair.

Throughout the project my research was quite consistently evidenced on my blog complimented with mind maps breaking down different artists quotes, approaches to design and aspects of their work that I put into my production file. Along with this I had sheets that allowed me to compare the work of multiple chair designers, looking at what I think work well or not, allowing me to come to a conclusion on the design or my chair.

I have been able to develop my critical thinking in all areas, but especially on the design of chairs which is an area of architecture that I hadn’t explored before. This will prove to be beneficial to me in the future where I will be able to showcase my skills in chair design in any job or course I do in years to come.

Experimentation and Development

First of all, as a class we completed 3 workshops that allowed us to experiment with different areas of Graphic Design such as typography (using different materials), screen printing (Inspired by Robert Rauschenberg) and also letter press (Inspired by David Carson). These workshops were important as they ensured that our projects were open to a variety of processes and not just our one idea that we want to do. They also gave us a number of artists that we could research and look at their approaches to graphic design, even if it wasn’t relevant to our final idea, It was still important to have a open mind.

When I decided to base my project on chairs I decided to create a variety of 3D experiments of models of chairs. To do this I used a large variety of materials such as cardboard, polystyrene, wood, metal and plastic. This allowed me to experiment with these materials and figure out which are most practical when creating a chair, but also which looks more effective than others. I went on to conclude that wood was the most practical material to use especially in the time line that I had. These experiments were also very important as they allowed me to explore different forms of chairs.

Further developments of these chairs included spray painting one of the wooden models and one of the polystyrene models. This was very beneficial to me as I have never spray painted before so I have learnt a new process. But I have also learnt that It may not be the best type of paint to apply to my chair as it has quite a shiny un natural appearance. Along with this, I decided to slightly burn one of the wooden models so that It had black burn marks around it. I think this worked very successfully as it added character to the model and made it quite visually interesting to look at compared to before. However this is also a process that I would have to be careful with if I was applying it to my final piece as once you do it there is no going back.

One of the new skills I learnt during this project was using the Hot Wire Tool in the RM room that Is used to slice through polystyrene. I quite enjoyed using this tool and was happy that I was able to learn something new whilst also generating ideas. However my polystyrene models weren’t very good as I wasn’t very good at using this tool. It has given me room to expand and develop on though when I go onto foundation as I would be quite interested in exploring sculpting with polystyrene, eventually going onto sanding it down to create smooth but precise details.

Alternatively, I created lots of sketches exploring different designs. I have a page consisting of simple geometric shapes, then a page consisting of generic chair forms. And then pages consisting of abstract shaped chairs using weird materials such as plastic tubes. From simple forms using basic shapes to quite complex designs; I was able to think of an idea that was inspired by The Eames, Tom Price and my own ideas that I am very happy with and proud of.

In class we was introduced to Michael Craig Martin, an artist who creates loads of simple

Illustrations exploring the shapes and lines of simple objects. This style interests me as I am intrigued by how he is able to make something so simple work so effectively.

At first, I wanted to also have a Illustration in the style of Michael Craig Martin that I could potentially install behind my chair in the exhibition that I would imagine would have complimented my chair quite nicely. However I did not have time to do this as I just about finished my chair on the day it was hand in, so I didn’t have time to take a picture of my chair then create a high quality digital illustration of it.

Once I had created a couple sketches of my final design before I started reading it, I decided to create a accurate digital sketch of my idea to present to Dave and the technicians in the work shop. I had done this as I thought this would be a much clearer way to show people my idea where as a sketch has the potential to be confusing. I annotated it with measurements that I based on chairs within the college. I decided to make my chair slightly larger than normal to ensure comfort as if the base of the seat isn’t wide enough it could seem more narrow than normal considering it is made from rope.

I was initially told I could either use MDF, plywood or try buy some wood myself to bring in. However I was running out of time so was hoping to use a wood that the college already had. To buy my own wood could cost me a lot of money as well. So my choice was between plywood or MDF. To experiment, I created the base of my chair 2 times using either one of these woods. I concluded that plywood was far more attractive to the eye and it would require less cutting out of wood as MDF is a lot thinner. This means that it is less likely that I would make a mistake.

The development of my final piece took roughly 2-3 weeks to finish. This included cutting out all the the strips of wood using the chop saw, laminating the plywood together, inserting dowels to ensure strength, piecing the wood together to overlap the corners, then sanding each individual piece of wood using 6 different types of sandpaper to ensure a really smooth finish, piecing all the pieces together, painting over it with finishing oil with 2 layers and finally applying the rope.

I thought that I used my time creating a body of work quite efficiently as I was able to create a wide variety of experimentations along with a refined outcome that is supported by the research and the development throughout the project.

Solution

I think the message of my project is that although chairs are very often overlooked and considered mundane by most people, they have the potential to be very visually exciting and in my opinion can bring a whole room together in terms of appearance and function. Different aspect of chair design such as form, material and size can all come together to create something that can draw people in that originally may have no interest in them before. For instance, before this project I don’t think I had ever really looked at and considered the forms of different chairs. It wasn’t really an area that I had any interest in before. However, since I have done my research and thought of loads of different ideas and eventually created a refined outcome, chair design is something that I am now very interested in. Every time I look at a chair I will consider its practicality against its appearance/ function over form.

My initial curiosity into architecture has drawn me into a more specific area of architecture that I will now be able to say that I have experience with. Along with this once I had conducted my research on chairs, my curiosity into the use of different materials and styles has allowed me to create a design that I believe is unique. I feel as though the use of laminated ply wood has worked very effectively. When I was initially told that I could either use MDF of plywood I was quite disappointed as my impression of these woods were that they both looked quite messy and cheap. However plywood can look very good when sanded down and laminated. The appearance of my piece is very much catered towards my personal style. I also think the use of soft cotton rope as the base of the chair has worked quite successfully as this rope is very soft and stretchy.

One of the negatives of my chair is that it rocks very slightly. If I had more time I would sand the bottom of the chair down so that It is all completely flat so that it wouldn’t rock.

Another one of the negatives of my project is that I haven’t worked tightly to a plan. As I have been quite busy outside of college, I haven’t been able to create a strict time plan to allow me to consistently finish off my blog posts and experimentations. My blog posts have been something I have gone on to push aside as I have developed my final outcome.

Along with this, I feel as though I could have generated more experimentations building up to deciding my decision on what I am going to base my FMP on. Apart from what we had done in workshops I feel as though there wasn’t much experimentations in my own time that explore different aspects of graphic design.

Some of the successful part of my project are that I feel as though I have created a creative chair that could catch the eye of some people. Considering that I had no history with chair design before this project, I am quite proud of my outcome and the different processes that I have learnt throughout. Along with this, I have created something that I can put into my portfolio when applying for university or jobs in the future.

To analyse the effectiveness of my chair, I plan to apply my chair in real life situations such as dining rooms, class rooms or offices to see what environments they fit in. From here I could give out a peer feedback sheet and ask my peers to choose which one works most effectively. Alternatively, I could email my chair to a professional architecture firm to get their feedback.

Overall, I think I can get more positives from this project than negatives. I have learnt a lot of new skills both technically and in terms of how to build and follow a project that I have largely created myself. I have really enjoyed this project and would probably consider it my favourite one during this course.

Throughout the past 2 years I have learnt loads of new skills, both technical graphic skills as well as general life skills. These practical skills include; a strong understanding of the majority of tools on digital packages Photoshop and Illustrator. These are programmes that I had never used before and now I would say I would be able to teach someone quite a lot if I need to. Along with this, my confidence with my general sketching skills have improved greatly. Even before this project I would have said that my sketching was one of my weakest areas which is concerning considering sketching is a large part of architecture. Throughout this project I have taught myself to sketch freely without putting too much pressure on myself to make the sketch accurate. This had allowed me to create a large quantity of sketches that prove to be a great foundation the the planning of my chair and my project as a whole. Additionally, I have also improved a huge amount with my resistant materials skills. Before starting this graphics course, I had never really worked on materials such as woods or metals. Now I have created a fully functional chair that (to me) is aesthetically appealing and unique.

Along with these technical skills, I would say that my general confidence has grown a huge amount over the past 2 years. I am now able to successfully hold group conversations with people, brainstorming ideas. This will prove to be hugely beneficial to me in the future as a huge part of being an architect is being able to discuss ideas with clients, responding to them and generating something that works with everyones best interests.

It is hard to say which one of these skills are most important as all sketching, resistant materials and confidence skills are a huge part of architecture. They will all prove to be very beneficial to me as I go on to develop and refine these skills next year on the foundation course, 4 years after that at university and then when I eventually go on to full time employment, hopefully as an architect.

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tinkiisms · 8 years ago

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Hey! What are your favorite FCs for Tink? What's your favorite part of the character? Do you prefer a cheery, benevolent Tink, or do you like reading/writing/engaging with a version of Tinker Bell with a darker nature?

Favorite Tink faces: Rose McIver, Natalie Dormer, Ashley Moore, Christina Nadin, Hayley Kiyoko.

Though I have to credit other people for the idea to use any of those!!

Rose came from me watching OUAT, where she was cast as Tink, and deciding to use her for my general FC on this blog.

Natalie is the FC I used to use on this blog, and and the idea came from an art piece of a “realistic” Tinker Bell who I thought looked very similar to her. I don’t think I’d choose her again but she is very cute.

Ashley Moore is probably my favorite Tink face currently (I use her for my Tiger Lily verse and have embonpoiint waiting for if I want to make a whole blog with her.) But she came from this lovely aesthetic post.

Christina and Hayley entered my faves just the other day when I saw them as suggestions for Tink’s FC in these respective RPGs!

I think Rose McIver fits perfectly for the cheery, happy-Disney-magic version of Tink that I tend to portray most often on my blog, but all the others IMO have slightly “sharper” features which I prefer for a more genuine Tinker Bell look.

Their dark arched eyebrows, eye shape and full lips are what I consider Tinkish features.

…..

My favorite depiction of her has been in the Disney Fairies book series, where she is moody and defensive, but ultimately courageous and loyal. A line from the first chapter book in the series says, “One thing [Terence] had always admired about Tink was her fierceness: her fierce dark eyebrows, her fierce determination, even the fierce happiness of her dimpled smile.”

If I had to choose a word to describe Tink it would be “fierce.” The quote in my fancy tag for her ⊹*⋅✧| ʲᵒʸ ᶦˢ ᶠᶦᵉʳᶜᵉ (tinker bell) comes from the first novelization of the Tinker Bell movie series, where her laugh is described on its way to Neverland before she becomes a fairy.

“The laugh collided with the bell of a slow-moving ship. No one on board heard the almost inaudible ping. But Queen Clarion heard it, and she feared for the laugh’s safety.But joy is fierce. Joy is strong. And joy is resilient.”

One thing I think is consistent about portrayals of Tinker Bell, whether she is more of a friendly fairy godmother like OUAT’s version or a spiteful pixie, is that she is fierce. Fiercely happy or fiercely angry, she feels everything very DEEPLY and acts with her whole being.

This is what was said of her in James Barrie’s original work: “Tink was not all bad; or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing orthe other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change.”

–And it’s something that I’m constantly thinking about as I write for Tink. Her emotions change at the drop of a hat, and when she is feeling good she is 100% all good, angelic, yet when she is feeling bad she is 100% all bad, devilish. It’s why she can be as full of love and dedication as to sacrifice her own life for Peter’s, and also be as full of hate and jealousy as to attempt to kill Wendy.

I think that would be my favorite version of Tink to read/write/engage with, because it’s something we don’t see a lot of in characters–that is, human morality is NOT black and white, and a well-written human character has more ambiguity to their decisions, while a well-written Tinker Bell should be able to make an unthinkable decision easily because she has no secondary feelings like guilt/compassion/shame to restrict her from acting off pure emotion when feels something negative (hate/rage/jealousy.)

Yet at the same time, somehow we excuse her because it’s not her fault she feels so deeply, and other times she is entirely made of love or joy.

And then, finding a balance between the mercurial nature of Tink’s moods and the personality traits that remain constant whether she’s up or down, is something I’m still working toward. Disney Fairies has been the best in my opinion at matching that. Tink still has her uncontrollable temper, but a layer of loyalty to her friends, curiosity/courage, and a love for her talent is what drives her.

If I was going to write my own interpretation of Tink (such as on the forementioned embonpoiint), not tied to any specific canon like all of the verses on this blog are, I might focus more on her negative character traits like her selfishness–which is seen in that even when she is happy it’s a self-centered happiness and she doesn’t express gratitude toward whoever brought her joy in the first place.

That said I do enjoy a very benevolent Tink as well as one with a darker nature. The former is one who I can get behind due to the connection of fairies to children–from fairies being born of a baby’s laugh to the description of fairies in Barrie’s “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens” in which fairies love children and wherever children are, there you will find fairies. Imagination and belief and childish innocence is a huge theme in Peter Pan, and while that originally include’s a child’s understanding of death (which is to say, none: Peter kills without thought) I could also see an adaptation in which the story is cleaner/less bloody and fairies like Tink are innocent and good-natured.

The latter, a dark-natured Tink is something I’ve not really seen–a truly ill-willed Tinker Bell who is after a larger-scale harm rather than simply looking out for her own desires, so I would totally be willing to explore it. Though genuinely evil characters are not as easy for me to write because I can’t understand them and so it’s difficult to get into their mindset, that’s what makes it a challenge and helps you grow as a writer!

Thank you SO much for the questions. If there’s anything else you’d like to know, I’d be SUPER willing to talk more about my interpretation of this character!

#⊹*⋅✧ | ʷʰᵃᵗ ᵈᵒᵉˢ ˢʰᵉ ˢᵃʸ﹖ (answers)

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artsmaus · 7 years ago

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Berenbaum, M. (2017, April 3). Holocaust. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/event/Holocaust

This source provides background information on the Holocaust in order to strengthen and solidify the understanding of the historical events (timeline wise) and better understand the emotions experienced by the Jewish population and the psychological aftermath of the survivors (Auschwitz or Holocaust in total). Some important topics that were covered in this source are Nazi Anti-Semitism, the Origins of the Holocaust and The Extermination Camps. The hundreds and thousands of Jewish people killed were over something simple such as prejudice against race and cost so much trauma to any survivors as well as their families: as it is passed down from generation to generation. This article will assist in quoting or referencing any historical events that actually happened as well as any statistics needed to support any claims made in the blogs. The biggest weakness of this article is that it does not directly relate to Maus. The biggest strength is the background knowledge gained about the Holocaust and its historical link to Art Spiegelman’s graphic memoir, Maus. This source is relevant because it addresses the main themes of Power, Race, and Welfare.

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Budick, Emily Miller. "Forced confessions: the case of Art Spiegelman's Maus." Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History, vol. 21, no. 3, 2001, p. 379+. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=ko_acd_shc&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA86386340&sid=summon&asid=31dd8e9c5b1116b7d8138f28c0df9aa6. Accessed 28 July 2017.

This is another source of heavy criticism of Art Spiegelman’s Maus. However, the author Emily Budick is focusing on the ethical perspective of Spiegelman’s work. As she states in her thesis that the reader does not get past chapter one and Art Spiegelman already breaks his promise to his father a countless amount of times. The promise was not sharing any private parts of his father’s (Vladek) life in the book that Art writes about him. She also mentions how the transitional parts of the memoir are the true focus as opposed to telling his father’s story about the Holocaust. Emily considers this focus to be unconventional and not an effective method to tell a story. Throughout the source, Emily finds many “flaws” in the memoir that she points out, and claims them to be not historically accurate or have broken the promise that Art made to his father. The single and only strength of this source is to expose oneself to the negative or opposing view’s argument. This provides an opportunity to observe, analyze, and evaluate the arguments made against Spiegelman’s work. Although these are valid flaws, this might not have been the focus of Spiegelman when writing this story about his father Vladek. The significant weakness of this article would be the pure denial or ignorance of the positive aspects of Spiegelman’s work. This article is still relevant because it explores more of the criticisms that Spiegelman’s work has encountered after its success. This provides an opportunity to build a stronger, more developed post to demonstrate how Spiegelman actually wrote a great piece of work!

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Chute, H. (2006). "The Shadow of a past Time": History and Graphic Representation in "Maus". Twentieth Century Literature, 52(2), 199-230. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20479765

This source extensively analyzes Maus as it describes how the theme of history or “Memory and the Past” is linked to the graphic representation. In Maus, graphic representation is demonstrated through the drawing as well as its style. There are excerpts of comic strips extracted from the book and inserted into this source as a method of providing evidence to support the claims made for the visual representation of the historic scenery that was used in Maus. Visuals such as old-fashioned houses, mass-produced furniture (basic looking), and the Lada like cars which immerse the reader into Vladek’s world of fear and financial struggles. This source also examines the close relationship that Art and his father Vladek share. The comic relief (funny) transitions with their family dynamic disputes demonstrate the theme of “Memory and the Past” as seen in the simple arguments that Art has with his father about hoarding garbage from the street or convincing Vladek to tell him the story about the struggles faced during World War II. The biggest strength that this article has is the narrow focus and in-depth analysis of small details where certain examples can be used when describing elements such as setting and plot. One weakness would be the extensiveness of the source that only focuses on the theme of “Memory and the Past” and how it is portrayed through visual representation. This source is relevant as it is directly analyzing Maus and symbolic aspects of the memoir that are advantageous to understand when analyzing literary elements of the graphic memoir. It will allow one to analyze and then evaluate these elements as opposed to just applying what was learned in class (blooms taxonomy).

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Lawrence, J. (2014, Oct). Art spiegelman Retrieved from http://www.julianlawrence.net/blog/art-spiegelman

This blog posting is of relevance to the assignment at hand because the writer had a deep understanding of Art’s use of a metaphor in MAUS. Being a highly educated person himself, Lawrence was able to dissect the true meaning of Spiegelman’s use of anthropomorphic mice and cat characters shedding light of how the combination of a comic style and writing can tell a story in a way that could never have been imagined. The point of Lawrence’s article was to help readers understand how Spiegelman was able to transform the world of comics giving us a background on classic comic book styles versus Spiegelman’s take. What I found the most interesting of Lawrence’s article was his ability to breakdown certain scenes of the book in a way that the average person would be able to. I would have liked to have more evidence in Lawrence’s piece, however as this is a subjective blog post, I expected more opinion than fact.

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McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding comics. (). New York:

The online book made available to the class was very useful for its purpose in learning to understand the use of images in graphic novels. The book details the misunderstood practice of comic book writing and how it has evolved over the years. McCloud goes into detail how to maximize each panel in a comic that would evoke the most emotion of send the message to the reader clearly. With comics, aspects such as colour, time, use of lines and white space, wording and vocabulary have to be strategically used in order to reflect the message to the readers I the most effective way given the space constraints of a comic. McCloud used a lot of past experiences and knowledge to describe the important elements of comics but as graphic memoirs are a blend of art and writing, it can be left open to interpretation by the reader.

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Samuels, D. (2013, November 13). Q&A with Art Spiegelman, Creator of 'Maus'. Retrieved from Tablet Mag: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/152310/art-spiegelman-jewish-museum

This article covers an interview with Art Spiegelman and his take on his own book as well as some ‘behind the scenes’ like questions. Some question topics or themes covered in this discussion includes how Spiegelman’s opinion about the Holocaust as well as his political stance on Anti-Semitism during World War II. There was a lot of exchange of conversation about the main themes of the book including power, welfare, race, memory and the past, family, guilt and blame, as well as morality and ethics. These themes are the focus of the conversation as the interviewer extracts these details with his thorough questions. One of the biggest weaknesses of this article is that the conversation was often sidetracked by personal questions, which sometimes strayed from the main objective of the interview: to talk about Maus the graphic memoir. However, the biggest strength of this article is that it covered many relevant themes, emotions, and really got Art Spiegelman to open up and share his views on a wide spectrum of topics. The article is still relevant because there is a lot of critical thinking (deeper knowledge/understanding) demonstrated throughout the conversation that would otherwise be difficult to acquire through secondary research.

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Smith, P. (2015) Spiegelman Studies Part 1 of 2: Maus. Literature Compass, 12: 499–508. doi: 10.1111/lic3.12262.

This article begins by recognizing Art Spiegelman’s success and popularity in the Comic Book industry. However, this success comes with the inevitable criticism. One of the biggest criticisms of Art’s work focuses around his style of drawing in his memoir Maus. Spiegelman portrays different races using an animal other than mice (as the Jewish people are the mice running away from their predators the cats, Nazis) and essentially divides the people into two racial groups Jewish and Non-Jewish. This devalues the other ethnic groups and is not fair in this situation because of not only the use of discrimination in visual form, but also the homogenization of Non-Jewish ethnic groups, as the Nazis victimized them during World War II as well. Although, the Non-Jewish ethnic groups were not the focus of the Holocaust, the fact still remains that the Jewish population was not the only one that was treated unfairly. The article then continues to explain how Holocaust survivors to this day experience a lot of trauma caused by these horrid events and how this trauma and pain is passed on to the younger generation (kids). The article then finishes off with an analysis of Anja and the significant symbolism associated with her death as she was the most realistic portrayal of the trauma caused by the Holocaust, and was made a martyr when she decided to take her own life. The biggest strength of this article is that it covers both the positive and the negative aspects of Art Spiegelman’s Maus and allows the reader to form an opinion based on the fair ‘weight’ to both sides. This article is relevant because it analyzes Maus from an objective point of view while addressing the abundance of the themes and symbolism found in this graphic memoir.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2004). Life in shadows hidden children in the holocaust Retrieved from https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/hidden-children/insideX/

This source focuses mainly on the impact that the Holocaust had on Jewish children during and after the war citing that the mortality rate among children was especially high for the amount of murders that took place. The article also highlights the pain that families suffered from being separated from their children and the hardships that they would endure throughout the war if they were kept in hiding. As the war came to an end, many Jewish children were left abandoned by their protector’s and were forced to find a living of their own at a young age with no family. The evidence in the source come from thousands of documented testimonies, preserved diaries, and different pieces of art such as drawing and sketches of children’s living standards. This article demonstrates a strong factual evidence of the events that took place, however, I believe it needs more description in regards to where and how the evidence was collected. The source itself is useful for it’s purpose as it makes Art Spiegelman’s storyline more factual and realistic.

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