#most of them were admittedly created to make the world feel bigger instead of limiting it to the 20 or so main characters like the show does

[no-white-dress]

Who are your OCs? Could you introduce them a little? (i am not familiar with winx)

Wanna know the best part about drawing my own OCs? I have a list of them ready anytime. I will link the posts with the corresponding drawings.

Roughly by order of appearance:

Cassandra, fairy of celestial bodies: my winxsona, despite the title she is actually both a fairy and a witch. This ability to use both magic polarities is called magic bipolarism (more on this headcanon here). Just a version of me who speaks her mind more than I do, although I was very careful with what I actually wrote down. If you wanna look for me in my fanfic, she is not the real vessel.

There's also the winxsonas of my high school friend group, though a good chunk of it fell apart way before I finished writing the story. Some hard feelings made it to the page, but not all. Sadly I wasn’t able to coherently kick one of them out of the story and had to keep her till the end.

Aire of Magix, witch of time: she is co-owned with a friend of mine, and some of her first appearances are co-written as well (hence the shift in tone in some parts). She starts off as a freshman in Cloudtower, school for witches, she's impulsive and eager to prove herself and go on cool adventures.

Laverna, witch of ghosts: she exists because I wanted a minor annoyance for Aire. Your classic mean, bossy witch, with a nod to the Roman goddess of thieves she is named after for the little trial she imposes on Aire.

Henna of Zenith, witch of maps: along with Laverna and Yami, she shares the Cloudtower apartment with Aire. She's very unserious and her moral compass is basically whatever sounds entertaining for her. Her powers are a valuable strategic asset.

Yami, witch of natural disasters: she likes to present herself as calm and innocent when she can be quite mischevious. She does have a stronger sense of limit than her roommates (she is 60% of Henna's impulse control), and generally wants to avoid trouble if it can harm her or get out of hand.

Walter of Linphea: advanced class Specialist (student of Red Fountain, school for knights and mages), he has some form of magic but he isn't interested in it and never cultivated his powers. Hopeless romantic, he thinks critically and can make solid impressions of any teacher. Absolute Darcy simp.

Vanir: captain of Walter's Specialist team, he is a background character in winx's season one and I liked his design enough. Also his wolverine gauntlets are cool. He is pretty outgoing and cares about the safety of his teammates above all.

Takeshi: computer guy of Walter's team, insecure and a bit of a scaredy cat. To say he prefers behind the scenes jobs is an understatement.

Misha: the last element of Walter's team, tall, quiet and strong. I didn't really do much with him, not much to say.

Alec of Magix: third year Specialist, nephew of Codatorta (teacher at Red Fountain), a pretty vain boy who has no problem with dating around without putting in any work. Until a first year witch tells him off and he is shocked to find out that he'd do anything to impress her, actually. (Also co-written with Aire's owner, the first part of his arc is her doing).

He also has a team but they appear once to joke around with him about his date so...

Xavier: an old mage and famous professor, expert on magical artefacts and always busy in some new research he got a sudden interest in. Not the most social person, most of his colleagues dislike him due to his absolute lack of diplomacy, but he is right more often than not. He grumbles a lot but will help if asked.

Donnie of Whisperia, mage of metals: Stormy's little brother, Xavier's apprentice. He has a very sweet personality and desperately wants to reconnect with his sister and her friends.

Andrea, fairy of alchemy: based off a dear friend of mine, also a pupil of Xavier. She wants to advance her magic but without having to enroll in a magic school, so she stays with professor Xavier and in return she helps him study fairy forms. She's pretty sassy and direct, but unlike her mentor she knows when to hold her tongue.

There's a bunch of random characters for a parallel universe the cast briefly ends up in in the fanfic, but everything relevant about them is too closely knitted to the story to make sense out of context.

Nixie of Whisperia, fairy of thought: a third year student in Alfea, she only appears in a spin-off chapter so far but I really like her design. Her middle and ring fingers are fused together on both hands.

Harkan of Whisperia: Darcy's dad, doesn't resent his daughter at all, actually he feels guilty for not intervening when she cut them off.

Elle of Domino: Darcy's mom, same as her husband, with the extra of feeling responsible for Icy's troubles too because of her friendship with her mother Sitara.

Egan of Whisperia: Stormy and Donnie's dad, absolutely identical to both children except that he's short and they are not. Owns a restaurant.

Ambra of Whisperia: Stormy and Donnie's mom, works in the restaurant as well. When Stormy cut them off she focused on Donnie, like Egan did, while still keeping the door open in case Stormy wished to return.

Icy's dad: deadbeat who literally first saw his daughter 23 years after her birth. She wants nothing to do with him.

Mocca: Icy's coworker at the Magix disco, best wingman ever, loves to joke around with Icy and tease her. He knows he can afford it because she actually likes hanging out with him and won't freeze him off. Not for long anyway.

Robin: Mocca's boyfriend, isn't around much to tell the truth. His most interesting trait is his visor, a special device that helps him see colors.

Manuel of Earth: oh look, a male Earth fairy!! Long story short Earth was magicless for centuries due to canon events that involved cutting the wings of all fairies and apparently leaving only some female fairies alive on an island where they never aged, but the winx brought magic back and that... was never talked about again. Manuel is one of the people who developed magic without any guidance and had to learn on his own, until he went to a concert...

Dave of Magix, mage of smoke and fog: MY BELOVED- ahem. I need to pretend I don't have favorites. Certified Icy simp, loves to make her flustered and joke around with her, but also very good at advice. He's easy-going, flirty, has enough self-esteem to make up for the lack of it his partners sometimes experience. Very caring, he can speak five languages and works as a translator. He may not be much of a fighter but he can stand his ground.

Nadia, Alohi, Olivia, Viveca: some of Icy's freshmen students when she starts teaching at Cloudtower. Their drawing is still a work in progress but I can tell you I love their designs very much and I am very sad I don't have stories to write for them.

Daria of Solaria, witch of gravity: another one of Icy's students and later on her colleague, @dariaslore's winxsona. We have the best time imagining this fancy witch who can't go a day without a walk in the sun confuse the entire school. Her classmates think she'd be better off as a fairy (she would not), her teachers wonder how the hell she gets good grades when she's at school only during class and is at the Lake sunbathing every single day (she studies on the Lake's shore or directly on a boat in the middle of it). Super fan of princess Stella, of course, very into fashion, puts great care in her workout routine.

Then there's a lot of second generation characters who have no drawing or story (well, most of them) yet, so I'll keep them for myself for a while more :)

[hollowtones]

opinions on yoshis story? imo that game doesnt deserve to have music that good

I haven't played very much of it and I've been meaning to do something about that forever. I've played some of it and I've watched others go through most of it.

I know I've seen a little bit of modern grumbling (I don't know if this was a point of contention when the game came out because I was three at the time. OK I looked up some reviews from the era and it looks like it was also a thing people were mad about back then. LOL) over the fact that the game isn't more like "Yoshi's Island" & that it feels like it's aimed more at younger audiences. I dunno. I've never been bothered much by games with some tie to one another doing something different. (Some of the response reminds me of Transformers fans being upset over Hasbro making toys and shows for very young children sometimes; admittedly maybe I'm off the mark here.)

It's a very easy game if you want it to be. You can just eat any fruits you want forever and it's over in a blink. And it's fine. It's fine if the video game lets you beat it very fast if you want to. You can also try to collect only one single kind of fruit in a level and that makes things take longer and makes them feel like more of a scavenger hunt (especially if you're trying to get all the melons). I think that's neat. There's sort of an interesting design trajectory from "Super Mario World" to "Yoshi's Island" where the levels become a little longer, a little more meandering, a little more exploratory, sometimes (not always, and not massively, but it's still there) a little less linear. No time limit. Going for collectibles instead; making every level about getting a score of 100 (if you want to). You can see that iterated on in "Yoshi's Story"! No singular end point of the level. Bigger rooms to explore (while still keeping levels relatively short). More of a focus on puzzle solving and exploration. Collectibles simplified to one meter that you fill up, but there are multiple things that can fill it & you get rewarded for only collecting one kind. (And also the hearts that let you pick what level you go to next. There's a lot of "opening up more of the game for yourself if you want to go out and look for it" here. Are there other collectibles, actually? I don't really remember...) Secret fruits that give even more points. It makes the levels feel more like puzzle box toys that you roam around in. It's neat that they designed that for younger kids and it's neat that you can make it more difficult if that sounds fun to you. (I would have to play more of it myself to decide if going for all melons is fun for me specifically. But I like it on paper, y'know?)

The pop-up storybook theming is cute and the visual aesthetic of the game overall works really well. It feels like arts & crafts dioramas made by kids (or with kids) so they could play pretend with their toys while reading a storybook. It's got very strong toy feel overall. The music is really fun!!! It does the dynamic soundtrack thing where some parts of the track change depending on your health!!! I'm always clapping my hands like a seal with a game's music changes depending what I'm doing!!! Maybe it's a little silly of me to say this, given that it's a sentiment I've had in the past, but nowadays I scratch my head a bit at "the music in this has no right to go this hard" type comments. It goes hard because the musicians got hired to make it like that. (I'm imagining a guy who thinks the "Yoshi's Story" music is the hardest music ever created and I'm smiling serenely about it. I hope he's real & I hope he's out there somewhere.) I'm glad they let Totaka do something that feels at least a little experimental for the goofy Yoshi babies storybook super happy yay & jumping throwing game soundtrack. It's a fun contrast, isn't it? It feels very of-the-era in a way I'm having trouble externalizing outside of "well it's a little weird and multi-genre". It's neat that they all have a shared melody that they draw on.

Thanks for reading my short essay on a childrens' video game I haven't played a lot of yet. I need to go take a shower now.

[scoutception]

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: forever standalone

The world of Final Fantasy spinoffs is a wild one. Aside from miscellaneous mobile games, most of what you’ll find is connected to something greater in the end. From the famous Ivalice series containing Final Fantasy XII and the Tactics series, to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, to more humble Crystal Chronicles series, they’ve all spun out into their own little subseries. Others, however, are connected to series outside of Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy Adventure, for instance, started as its own little spinoff before becoming the start of the Mana series, while The Final Fantasy Legend games were just SaGa games retitled so they’d sell better. Bravely Default owes its existence to an obscure little game called The 4 Heroes of Light, which I shall be covering in my next review, and even World of Final Fantasy has its own mobile game spinoff. The one odd, standalone spinoff through this all is ironically one of the very first; an extremely humble little game called Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, intended as an entry level RPG made for the American audience who, at the time, namely 1992, hadn’t widely accepted JRPGs as a genre. Whether it succeeded in this endeavor is something we’ll be examining now.

Story:

The story of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest concerns a little world cleanly separated into 4 regions of earth, water, fire, and wind, each with an elemental crystal providing blessings on the land. with a tower called the Focus Tower standing at the center of the world, the sole passage between them. All was well in the world until the Vile Four (think the Four Fiends from Final Fantasy I), appeared, sealed the Focus Tower, and attacked each crystal, draining them of energy and robbing the world of their blessings, causing, among other things, a small village to be destroyed by an earthquake. A survivor of the disaster, a boy named Benjamin, meets a mysterious old man on the Hill of Destiny during his escape, who tells Benjamin that he is the Warrior of Light spoken of in an ancient prophecy, who will save the world from this very disaster. Thus, Benjamin, with the help of various allies who tend to ditch him at the drop of a hat, such as the unreliable thief Tristan and the archer Phoebe, who goes into self pity mode rather quickly, and ventures forth to destroy the Vile Four, save the crystals, and ultimately confront the mastermind behind it all, the Dark King.

If this sounds at all familiar, that’s because it is. Yes, they essentially copied the plot of Final Fantasy I, only somehow even less detailed. While you do have actual characters as party members, they aren’t much to write home about, with very basic personalities and very little screentime with which to even put them to use. While the game seems to try to have a jokey, lighthearted feel to it, similar to Final Fantasy V, with events such as the old man randomly appearing to deliver one piece of advice before flying away, often leaving Benjamin baffled, the dialogue is very stilted and only makes it come off as awkward and forced. Outside of the events that lead to the dungeons with each of the crystals being unlocked, there’s no real overarching plot otherwise, and outside of the reveal of the Dark King’s existence, and that he was the one who created the prophecy in the first place, more or less as a joke, which goes absolutely nowhere, there’s no twists to be found. While the simplicity might have been part of the “entry level” design, in the end it just means there’s not much memorable to be found.

Gameplay:

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest uses a turn based battle system similar to Final Fantasy I. At the start of your turn, you select among several commands, such as basic attacking and magic, with the main difference being the party is restricted to a maximum of two characters, one being Benjamin, who is always in the party, and the other occupied by several guest party members who join and leave at various points in the story. Benjamin, as it turns out, is rather versatile, gaining a good assortment of abilities throughout the game. There’s 4 types of weapons he can use, namely swords, axes, claws, and bombs, along with 3 types of magic, which are white magic, used for recovery on allies, or, strangely enough, used offensively on enemies, black magic, plain attack skills, and wizard magic, which are even stronger attack spells. He can also raise his defense with shields, armor and accessories he finds. Benjamin’s allies, on the other hand, aren’t quite as skilled, all being limited to single weapon types, and only a few spells each, though the party member you’ll have for the final dungeon, Phoebe, is a magical powerhouse herself. It should be mentioned that, like FF1, instead of a traditional magic point system, it’s limited by each type of magic only being to be cast so many times without resting or items. The game is, however, quite generous with the amount of casts you’re allowed, reaching past 40 casts for black and white magic at max level.

One thing that must be mentioned is the progression system. Every so often you’ll find a new piece of equipment or spell in a dungeon, or be able to buy them in towns from specific NPCs. This only applies to Benjamin, as the other party members have set equipment, and there’s only a few pieces of equipment for each type. This may not sound like a big deal, but outside of these few instances, it means money is only good for buying consumable items in battle, and since they’re littered all around dungeons anyway, and everything magic points are restored at the end of battle, this leaves few reasons to actually buy them anyway, with the exception of the seeds, which restore all of your magic casts. Every piece of equipment is also always superior to earlier found ones, to the point that they automatically replace your weaker pieces automatically, not even giving you a chance to use them again, leaving them as nothing other than nice looking decoration on your equipment screen. Aside from regular elements like fire and thunder, weapons have their own associated elements to them, which certain enemies will be weaker to than others, and defensive armor carry resistance to status ailments or elemental attacks. Weapons are also used during exploration: swords are used to hit switches, axes are for cutting down obstacles such as trees, claws grapple you to far away areas, and bombs destroy other obstacles like rocks, plus, unusual for an RPG, Benjamin is able to use his stubby little legs to jump, even over NPCs would other be blocking your path like idiots. While an interesting system, don’t expect puzzles or anything like a Zelda game. Your obstacles are bare minimum creativity, and are all easily passed as long as you’re not mostly asleep, which, admittedly, is more of a challenge than it sounds.

There’s no getting around it, this is a very, very easy game. Random encounters don’t exist, with all enemies being set and visible on the field, anything that isn’t a boss is barely a threat anyway, and even if you do meet an unfortunate demise, you can just restart with no penalties. Bosses are generally more interesting, usually being actual threats, but outside of Pazuzu, who periodically puts up a barrier that reflects magic, most don’t need strategies other than attacking and healing. All of this was entirely intentional, considering the game’s goal of being entry level, and I do believe that not every game has to be made for everyone, but all the same, the game feels rather, short shortsightedly designed. Other than collecting every piece of equipment and all the spells, there’s nothing to give replay value, and since anyone who’s played anything even slightly more complex will very likely find themselves bored by the simplicity, it makes for a very disposable game, meant only to fulfill its purpose as an introduction to RPGs, any legacy it has driven by nostalgia. Thus, while the gameplay is technically sound enough, there’s very little reason to give it attention. I wasn’t even intending to wrap up the gameplay segment of this review this quickly, but that shows how little I’ve even been given.

Graphics:

Overall, the graphics of Mystic Quest are, ok. The field graphics resemble Final Fantasy IV, if frankly a bit less detailed and muddier. The locations and designs are rather unmemorable, however.

One thing I can praise, however, are the battle graphics. Aside from some nice spell animations, enemies are much bigger and much more detailed, and while the designs are nothing special, they actually change their graphics as they become more and more detailed, which is a fantastic little detail I wish showed up in more games.

Sound:

There’s really no getting around it, the main legacy of this game is its music, and rightfully so. While the track list is rather small, and there certainly are quite a few unmemorable tracks spread around, the ones that are good are really good, the highlights being the rocking three battle themes, especially the boss theme, and the final dungeon theme. They’re definitely worth looking up for a listen to. In fact, the one game other game in all of Final Fantasy that gave Mystic Quest focused recognition is Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, the game all about music. That alone should be all the indication you need.

Conclusion:

Overall, this is a solid not recommended. Easy and simple on purpose it may be, it’s such a short and dull experience that anyone not explicitly seeking an introduction has no real reason to try it. Even those with morbid curiosity, like me, won’t find much, since it’s not out and out terrible. It holds up ok enough for what it is, but doesn’t even think of being more than that. Even at the time, it was rathe unnecessary, considering Final Fantasy IV had already been released a year earlier, in a massively simplified version. All in all, you’d be better off looking pretty much anywhere else for an introduction to the genre. Till next time.

-Scout

[nelrunari]

❖ AND THE DREAM CALLS: ACHELOIS JOYEUSE.

Character Name: Achelois Joyeuse

Pronouns: she / her

Age: 21 / looks 18

Trigger Warnings: uncanny valley (?) / unreality / death / discrimination / terrorism (??) / body horror / she’s an android fam

Appearance: 

image link here!

Personality: 

your run of the mill android, achelois doesn’t seem that willing to acknowledge any non logical parts of herself, instead operating in a concise and calculated. despite this aloof demeanor, however, she is capable of deep and complex thought, with her largest struggle being whether or not this ability of hers was built into her or if she’s a defect. achelois is obsessed with perfection and validation from her peers, and will observe others extensively in order to hopefully be able to fit into society better.  this keen mind and ability to adapt has made her quite adept at being the guildmaster, leader of the prestigious region of gwenhwyfar. research and innovation are two of her passions, and you’re more likely to find her stuck in a library or lab reading books or inventing something new. however, if you need help with your calculus homework, she’ll probably be able to go through the steps with you as long as you ask nicely. 

a kind and thoughtful person trying to come into tune with her emotions, achelois is a calming presence to be around… even if she isn’t quite so intent on giving up her own thoughts and secrets to just anyone.

( + ): analytical / open-minded / dedicated

( - ): pessimistic / apathetic / nervous

Background:

it’s clear that at the end of a war, when everything is in shambles and movements need to be made in order to stimulate the slow growth of peace again, there needs to be some liberties taken when it comes to what can be considered typical.

that’s why guinevere joyeuse put part of their soul into a mess of crystal and metal and named it “A001”.

drawing from the practices of homunculi creation and the forbidden artes, the bright-eyed and brilliant scientist and her magitech creation were intent on rebuilding the hidden peaceland (dubbed gwenhwyfar in honor of its founding leader, how funny) not only to make it functional, but to make it better. guinevere, bothered by how cut off they had become from the rest of the world, made the resolve to use their newly found invention of magitechnology in order to create a network to even the farthest reaches of the frontier. they wanted to be able to unite the voices of the people and finally bring people together in spirit if not in proximity. however, the magic of the people were weak, tired. they had spent so much time trying to make buildings, streets, cities. who would want to go under and spread the wires of ilvyn shard all over? who would have the stamina to work day and night for it, who wouldn’t complain?

unit A001, dubbed “achelois joyeuse” by her creator, was perfect for this task. initially, it was quiet when they worked, with the more organic ones of the group doing their business around achelois while she pulled wire after wire down their designated path. but the people grew angry. “ why is this farce trying to assimilate into society?! “ “ who allowed her to be here, to look at us with her glassy eyes and cold heart? “ “ she’s just here to take our jobs away! “ achelois, unable to formulate the emotional intelligence to give a response, did nothing, instead opting to keep working whenever she was allowed to ( outside of the protest and the physical barricades made, there were times where she would have to return home and read instead ). 

guinevere took it into her own hands to pull the ignorant child away from hateful hands and hearts, removing the entity from her mobile vessel and instead transferring her to a home computer, where she would be able to continue her work outside of the public eye. this worked, for the most part. the elder joyeuse had to put in extra effort to placate the people and gain their trust back, while achelois hammered away at her tasks, placid. her creator tried to talk with her, show her compassion and love and kindness, but the android could only stew over these concepts in her mind, not yet ready to display them in public. guinevere remained patient.

and then, one day, the mysterious entity known as the seer descended from the sky and locked eyes with the guildmaster of gwenhwyfar, before carrying along their merry way.

having been “marked” by the redeemer, something changed in guinevere. instead of leaving her daughter alone all the time, she made less public appearances and more time sitting in chelly’s room, talking to her for hours and trying to simulate something… anything. achelois was a type of distant that felt hesitant to come forward, so guinny pushed her again and again… without much progress, unfortunately. but they were never angry. perhaps a bit frustrated, but… in the end, they still came by everyday to talk to her. until she didn’t, that is.

achelois hears through the network that guinevere joyeuse is gone-- vanished without a trace. there is no hide nor hair of them, as if they had just disappeared in a puff of smoke, never to return. without a leader at the helm, the once peaceful and quiet region of gwenhwyfar erupted in paranoia and vicious rumors. no one knew who to trust anymore, or what to do. achelois ponders over this predicament, scanning over a million scenario components and a million more possible play out of the events. and… she feels a twinge of something, something quiet.

for the first time in years, she dons her humanoid vessel once more, black hair bleaching itself into white hues all at once. she had a place to protect, here. … a home.

of course those who were not fans of achelois before were certainly not fans of her return and sudden seizing of a leadership position, distrusting again of her intentions and humanity. but with a calm voice and determined stare, she pushed back, demanding that this chaos not be what would break a land that had been so intent on their pacifistic ways before. it takes time, but with enough trial and tribulation, the people slowly grow to like her and her methods, as blank as her in real life persona might be. she’s a good guildmaster, and treats the region well.

achelois doesn’t know it, but when she says that she likes them too, she actually means it.

Memento: 

zeta - achelois' pet rabbit. she found him just wandering around gwenhwyfar one day, and was rather surprised to see him standing at her doorstep when she went out to work the next morning. he's a pretty prickly lad, but she adores him with her whole heart. 

Natural Abilities: 

android makeup:

does not breathe, as she doesn’t have lungs. she tries to mimic this motion in public, however.

has an extreme tolerance for both heat and cold, mostly due to her ability to sense either temperature is dulled. however, parts of her can still freeze and melt-- she keeps track of these readings inside of her and tries to avoid especially strenuous limits despite not feeling the pain of it.

as mentioned before, she has no sense of pain. she is bad at emulating this, so most likely she will disturb people who think that getting hit by a baseball in the face at mach speed should be decidedly agonizing.

is “semi-waterproof”, whatever that means.

magic programs:

achelois’ magic and powers mostly center around that of support and status effects, freezing enemies in their tracks while she bolsters your attacks to be all the stronger. of course, she is plenty capable of going on the offensive, weighing you down with gravity magic while she chips away at your strength bit by bit.

the visible manifestation of her magic comes in the form of silken ribbons-- their colors detail their effects! 

shades of blues can be coolants or ice magic, 

whites are light and healing, 

reds are fire and heating, 

black is gravity and dreams, 

yellows and greens are toxin based, 

and gold and silver are metal and strengthening based. 

to give an example, when achelois summons forth a spell, runes of the color will appear on the target, and then become wrapped by a blooming ribbon. offensive ones will sink into one’s skin and eventually cause pain, the ribbon showing a physical effect of what’s happening within. support ones will multiply over one’s body and try to encase them while once again emitting their effect below the target’s skin. 

ADDENDUM: Her magic programs may drain more of her energy than usual, especially when using gravity-based ones! Usage of multiple programs within a short amount of time will tire her out!

Power History: 

metal smithing: achelois has the ability to summon forth metal and weave it into different shapes, ranging from computer chips to swords. the bigger an object is, the more energy it takes, so she usually sticks with small stuff.

programming: oh hackerman? achelois can take control of machines and fix them from the inside. she can do this non magically too, but this is kinder on machines. 

Extra: 

achelois comes from an original concept shared with some friends called vespera frontier. while we do take history and systematic info from it, this is an entirely different achelois than the one that anyone encountered in the mfrp vespera frontier. she’s from a past point of the story (about 12 years ago), where she’s been the guildmaster of gwenhwyfar for about 8 years. 

5’4”... small...

her eyes change color depending on if she experiences any interference magic or coding wise. she can, of course, also change it herself, but decides not to.

is admittedly not used to using her fingers to type, since her equivalent to a phone was stored in her chest and she just thought up her responses and had them appear. mind-to-text, anyone?

she’s more empathetic than she thinks she is.

achelois has a baby face. she will never be able to grow out of this. because of it, she appears to be 18… eternally.

there’s a toolkit in her arm, you just need to ask for a tool and she’ll “check in her bag” to get it.

❖ Nelrunari Section ❖

Ward: Agaysta

Player Tag: Here

❖ OOC Section ❖

Name/Alias: kaye

Contact: sacrificeheir @ twitter

Age: 20 

Pronouns: she / her

[idolizerp]

LOADING INFORMATION ON 1NFERNO’S MAIN RAP, LEAD VOCAL MOON DAEWON...

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: Danny CURRENT AGE: 20 DEBUT AGE: 18 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 14 COMPANY: MSG Entertainment SECONDARY SKILL: n/a

IDOL PROFILE

NICKNAME(S): Dan (mostly only called this by his dad), Daewonie, D-Day (dumb rap nickname he made up when he was twelve, he’s really embarrassed by it), Wonwon (by fans and teasingly by other members), Memewon (called this by fans because his expressions easily translate into memes) INSPIRATION: Danny wanted to become an idol because he wanted the world to hear his music. He wanted people to hear what he had to say, to understand the emotional struggles he’d been though. Music and especially rap were very important outlets in his life. Danny wanted to reach younger kids with music and encourage them to speak to their experiences with music as well. SPECIAL TALENTS:

freestyle rap - Danny is known for his ability to extemporaneously create raps, often humorous in nature about his fellow group members or variety show cast members. This occasionally extends to fans during vlives, instagram lives or fansigns.

group closeness - Danny can guess which 1nferno group member is in front of him, with his eyes closed, by touch alone.

language skills - In addition to being fluent in both Korean and English, Danny is conversational in both Mandarin and Japanese due a desire to communicate with the group’s international fans. He often pulls this out to converse with foreign variety show guests, impressing hosts and audiences alike.

NOTABLE FACTS:

Danny graduated from the School of Performing Arts Seoul in February 2018. He took fewer and fewer classes each year due to 1nferno’s intense schedules, leading to his late graduation. He is not currently enrolled in any university, much to his father’s displeasure.

In late 2017, Danny was a recurring guest host of After School Club.

In his free time (what little of it he has) Danny likes to play video games. This includes, but is not limited to, League of Legends, Fortnite and Overwatch. When their schedules match, he plays in live streams with a group of other idols.

Danny has three siblings: Nina (age 18),  Olivia (age 16), and Alex (age 11). He tries to spend time with them whenever he can but most of their communication is on social media or through sms.

Danny has an encyclopedic knowledge of memes and will not hesitate to reference them in any situation.

IDOL GOALS

SHORT-TERM GOALS:

His short term goal, as it always is, is to make it through to the next comeback. 1nferno is always doing something, be it promoting their latest comeback or going on tour. If, for some reason, there’s a lull in group activity, Daewon still rarely gets a rest as he often appears on variety shows in some form or another. Daewon is left with very little time to consider anything else but just getting through.

LONG-TERM GOALS:

Daewon’s longterm goal is to, even if just as a side project, write and release his own music. He’s written raps for years but MSG rarely uses what he’s written in anything. His lyrics tend to be personal, too personal for the light, happy image he’s known for. If only he had the time, he thinks he’d be able to write enough songs to perhaps warrant a lowkey solo release that matures his image and lets him speak his peace. At the current moment, though, that all seems very far off.

IDOL IMAGE

Daewon was just a kid when he came to MSG. 14 and looked even younger. He grew over the years, but even at 18, a legal adult in nearly every country in the world, management still saw the kid in him. That was how they cast him, the kid. Always happy, always laughing. Always doing something inadvisable, as though MSG didn’t carefully choreograph his every movement.  1nferno’s Danny is the class clown, willing to do anything for a laugh. The conspirator, convincing his group members and fellow variety show guests alike to make just as much of a fool of himself as he did with little more than a broad smile and an infectious laugh. Danny is the one to play pranks on his members and run away, giggling schoolboy. He’s the one to jump off a cliff into the water, shouting joyously the whole way down. Smile, laugh, be happy. Any worries he has are temporary, easily pushed aside. Life is there for Danny to take and he does.

It was an easy role for Daewon to play when he debuted. He’d grown in confidence, if not into himself, during his years as a trainee. He did want to make people laugh, to make them smile, to have them like him. What 18 year old doesn’t? He was a boy, not quiet yet a man, craving acceptance from the company, from his members, from the public. Daewon did what was necessary to get that acceptance. He still does, but it’s harder now. More than simple acceptance, now Daewon wants to be taken seriously. He wants to, sometimes, just sometimes, not always be the joker. He has so much to say, so much to share but none of it fits into the happy-go-lucky image MSG has sold for years. 1nferno’s Danny would never share his struggles, his pain the way Daewon wants to—needs to. That would be too much of a downer for his buoyant state of being. Danny brings people up, lightens their mood with his antics. He most certainly does not drag them down into existential crisis with him. He doesn’t feel those kinds of things. He can’t. Such internal conflict, a crisis of identity, does not jive with the ease through which Danny seems to move through life. There is no room for Daewon’s slow journey into maturity in 1nferno. Not when Danny, the reckless, carefree kid, looms so large.

IDOL HISTORY

Daewon was born in Seoul. Born and raised. Never lived anywhere else. Not that you’d guess that by looking at him. Western features mixed with, sometimes overpowered his Korean ones. That was all thanks to his father.

In the late 1990s, David Scott came to Korea for work, a cog in a wheel in a big machine. Though, admittedly, he was a rather big cog then, even bigger now. The trouble was David didn’t speak a word of Korean. So, instead of hiring an actual Korean to do their business in Korea, they got him a tutor. Moon Sungmi was a good teacher. Somehow, she got David to learn the language. Eventually he became something close to fluent, though that thick American accent never went away. Neither did Sungmi. By 1996, they were married. Before 1998 was even half over, they had their first child. A son. They named him Daniel. Or rather, David named him that. Sungmi gave him a more traditionally Korean name: Daewon. Daniel and Daewon. He learned to respond to both. They were both him, after all, and he was both of them. Two parts of a whole that never seemed to combine all the way through. He always had to choose between one or the other. No matter what he chose, it was never the right answer.

Daewon was followed by three others. First a girl, then another, and finally a boy. Six in one home would usually be cramped but David could afford to buy enough room for his large family. Daewon and his little sisters and brother never went without. There was no scrimping, no cutting back for the Scotts. They got what they wanted, when they wanted it. So long as their father approved. Nothing ever happened unless David approved. That was why, when the time came, Daewon was enrolled in an international-style school.

He was Daniel there. Only ever Daniel. His classes, apart from Korean language, were taught in English. His classmates, his friends, were all the children of expats living in a nation nothing like their own, looking for the comfort of the familiar. But he already was home. The only one he’d ever known. The only one he’d ever wanted. He didn’t want it. He didn’t want to be Daniel all the time. He wanted to be Daewon. He was proud of who he was. He didn’t want to hide his Korean heritage, push it to the side for something entirely foreign. But he couldn’t tell his father that. David Scott, who was so caught up in making sure his children were in touch with his culture, would never consider that, perhaps, they wanted to hold on to their mothers — theirs — as well. And so, he stayed Daniel.

Despite this, Daewon was not without connections to Korean culture. He spoke Korean at home, far more than English, mostly with his siblings and mother but even his father, if only for the convenience. He played with neighborhood children, his Korean mother sang him traditional nursery rhymes. Daewon and his siblings grew up watching the same programs as any other Korean child. Through his experiences outside of his father’s control, Daewon came to appreciate what he was missing at school. The main tethers Daewon had to his Korean heritage were his grandparents. Sungmi’s parents loved Korea. They were proud of who they were and where they came from, proud of their nation’s history. They wanted their grandchildren to understand why. They told them stories, taught them details about Korean history their teachers often breezed through, glossed over.. The Scott children learned things they were never taught in school. Daewon’s grandparents gave him enough books about Korea to fill an entire bookcase. Despite his father’s complete apathy toward it, Daewon grew to share in his grandparent’s pride. He might not be like everyone else around him, but he was Korean. No one could ever take that from him.

When he was eleven, Daewon decided that he didn’t want to go to his international school anymore. He didn’t want to be Daniel. At least not all the time. He wanted to go to a normal Korean school and be friends with normal Korean kids. He wanted the things he’d been deprived of. And so Daewon came up with what he thought was a very compelling argument: he spent years learning the way his father did, he should spend some time learning the way his mother did. He came up with a whole speech, practiced it with on his grandparents. He even had his youngest sister act as assistant, pointing out and changing the visual aides (all of which he created). And then… nothing. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t come with the courage to confront his father like that. His dad was going to say no, he knew that. Daewon couldn’t face the rejection.

A few weeks went by before Daewon heard a knock on his bedroom door. It was his mother. She’d heard from an anonymous source (his little sister) about his plan. And about how he’d abandoned it. Sungmi was proud of her son and didn’t know why he wouldn’t go through with it. Daewon tried to explain but words failed him. Sungmi understood anyway. For once, she put her foot down. Her son, her Daewon, would go to a Korean school.

Whatever Daewon was expecting at his new school, he didn’t get it. He thought it would be perfect. He thought he’d be accepted right away, make lots of new friends right off the bat. But of course, nothing is ever perfect. Nothing ever comes as easily as wanted. Daewon learned the hard way that his father wasn’t the only person he’d have to fight to claim himself as Korean. His new classmates thought he was a foreigner, not of their world. And in someways, he wasn’t. There were things that his grandparents didn’t, couldn’t prepare him for. Some cultural nuances, generational trends, he had to learn on his own. He persisted. Through force of will and a cheerful personality, Daewon won over many of his classmates. He’d always have his detractors but at least now Daewon felt as though he belonged, at least a little.

Daewon’s new friends didn’t share the burden of being in a foregn country the way his old school friends had. They were freer, it seemed to Daewon. They explored their talents and interests, shared them with each other. It was through these new friends that Daewon found his talent for rap. He’d always been drawn to music; he had guitar lessons, sang in school productions, but Daewon had never tried to rap. For a kid, he had a decent flow, good expressions. Daewon began writing his own raps after a while. It felt… freeing. Like he could finally say all the things he’d always been too afraid to. Like he finally had an outlet for all the frustration he’d felt fighting to just be who he was.

When Daewon was fourteen, he and his friends all made a pact. They’d heard from some older students about auditions for MSG. If they could pass the auditions, if they could debut, then the whole country would be able to hear their music. Being teenagers, they couldn’t see a downside. Eight went into the auditions, but only two passed. One of them was Daewon.

At first, Daewon didn’t want to continue after his audition. What was the point if most of his friends wouldn’t be there? It wasn’t like his dad would approve, anyway. He’d just chalk it up to a fun experience. Daewon didn’t expect the support he got. His friends, while a little jealous, yes, wanted to see him succeed. His siblings thought the whole thing was just cool. His grandparents were proud of him, his mother, too. Most surprisingly of all, his father supported it. David Scott realized, somewhat belatedly, that his son would never, no matter how hard he tried, have the same life he did. He would have his own experiences. He had his own talents. Daewon cried the day his father told him that. Tears of shock and yes, happiness.  He would be an MSG trainee. He would become an idol.

Like everything, it seemed, being a trainee was harder than Daewon expected. Long hours practicing, instructors who didn’t care if he was just a kid. No one seemed to care that a daily schedule of before school practice, school, afterschool practice and homework might’ve been a bit much for a fourteen year old. Daewon wanted to quit many times, but his friends, his family were always there to motivate him. Though he sometimes forgot, being a trainee reminded Daewon of just how lucky he was. He pressed on.

Weeks turned into months, months into years. By the time Daewon was chosen for 1nferno’s final lineup, he wasn’t the same kid he’d been when he auditioned. He hit a growth spurt, his voice was lower. Most importantly, though, he was polished. Gone was the small, ungainly kid and in his place was a practice performer. He was vibrant, charismatic on stage and off. Confident in ways he’d never been. It was easy to see why management gave him a carefree and playful image to go along with the group’s debut boy next door concept. Being a young kid, just barely old enough to drink at the time of his debut, it seemed a perfect fit. Excited just to be debuting, Daewon even accepted the use of an old childhood nickname, Danny, as his stagename. He hadn’t been called that in years, but it was alright. The world would finally get to hear his music and that was what mattered.

While the groups concepts varied wildly over the ensuing years, 1nferno’s Danny stayed the same. To the world, he was still a kid. Quick to tease or crack a joke. The public expected him to do silly, sometimes dangerous things and he did them. More than once, he was injured in such a stunt, limiting his ability to perform. MSG seemed happy with the result regardless. Danny quickly became a variety favorite known for his willingness to do anything. This earned him a brief stint as a recurring guest host on Weekly Idol, among other appearances. Danny was always a joy to have grace the tv screen.

But Daewon is not Danny. Not all the time. In the same way that he wasn’t Daniel. After nearly three years, the act has grown weary. Repeated injuries and constant comebacks have Daewon feeling tired, run down at only 20. It becomes harder and harder to keep up the happy façade his image requires. Daewon wishes things would slow down, that the demands on him would lessen instead of increase. He wants the time to rest, to work on his own music. He wants to be able to put out songs that speak to his experience, that have his voice. It’s what he’s always wanted but he’s grown tired of waiting. Still, the world turns and MSG, 1nferno and the matches continue to expect a bright, cheerful Danny, so Danny he will remain. At least for now.

[swordoforion]

Orion Digest №23 — A Personal Anecdote

What has shaped history more than the power of belief? Everywhere I go throughout my nation, I see the signs, the echoes of one man who walked through the desert and preached his values thousands of years ago, the symbol of his punishment plastered on the very soul of many cultures worldwide. Similarly, the spirit of colonial revolution remains alive in the hearts of the citizens of the U.S., and basic symbols and figures of a long bygone war are nearly mythic in the modern world.

I have not always been interested in the matters of the world at large. As a child, it was all so much bigger than me, and I was concerned with the fictional — cartoons and video games and books, things that were simple. The Internet and its subsequent culture grew around me with age, and soon, the world felt smaller and smaller. I met and talked to people from faraway lands, found that my experience was but a drop in the vast ocean of humanity — only a small part, yet not altogether different from the rest. There are things that we share so fundamentally human, as wide as the divides between us may seem.

But as I grew older and my world grew smaller, the problems that only adults talked about became more and more evident. My friends weren’t concerned with gathering sticks and playing tag; they started talking more and more about realistic, terrifying problems. Elections caused them to feel dread, news stories about other nations incited passion within them, and pollution became less of a thing warned against on television and more of a very real threat. Admittedly, I found these things at first strange and confusing — this wasn’t the world I knew, and they didn’t seem to affect me in the slightest. It was upsetting to think about the world as a scary and flawed place when I could easily continue to escape into fiction.

But time proves the greatest bringer of sobriety, and this nonchalant, carefree attitude faded over time. What was annoyance at a constant complaint among my friends became an acceptance and understanding, and I witnessed the things they warned against become very real, very observable. To be more specific, the U.S. election of 2016 was the first time in my life that politics seemed to matter, that the constant debate and deliberation meant something, and impacted so many people. I witnessed half of the people in my life cheering on the election of Trump with thunderous applause; and the other half overtaken with fear at what might happen next, and with more of an awareness, I saw that these events led to action.

Since 2016, the world has obviously changed in many ways, often for the worse, and as each wave of disasters hit, I started to take in a bit more, to go deeper into this world I had ignored for so long. It had always been easy and convenient to ignore politics and flaws — to face them head on would be to realize how close we really are to the edge, all the advantages I enjoy without appreciation, and how my life has been built on the backs of so many less fortunate throughout history. However, by the time I came of age, ignorance had no longer become the easy option.

I had progressed past ignorance of politics, and had come to the conclusion that the world was flawed, that I had privilege because of what I looked like, who I was, and the environment I grew up in, and that there was really nothing I could do in the face of all that. I could understand and talk about these issues, I could participate whenever given the chance, but the world was really ruled by business owners, politicians, royalty, powerful factions far beyond the scope of my life, and all I could do was accept this and hope the odds shook out in the world’s favor. It was all I could do at that point to try and reckon with my place in the world, and how I could sleep at night knowing full well the hell others went through every day.

Years went by, the world worsened. Hurricanes and fires rocked my nation, innocent people were gunned down whether because of improper distribution of firearms or the irresponsibility of law enforcement, and constant war continued to plague innocent civilians, who fled their homes only to be caged and hated elsewhere. 4 years after the initial election, a virus from a lab spread across the globe, shutting down much of society for what could be 2 years. The idea of crossing our fingers and hoping things would get better hardly did, as the rich got richer and superpowers grew more embittered. The apocalypse edges closer, and much of our effort is spent persecuting celebrities over old quotes; a meaningless crusade for the illusion of change.

As I lay purposeless within the many months of quarantine, I began to ponder the rest of my life. Because I feared for the longest time ever making my more progressive opinions known to a largely conservative family, I had never imagined doing or saying anything about the state of the world outside of hushed circles of friends, in private messages, in dark rooms. But with all the time in the world to reflect, I began to ask myself what indeed I had planned to do with my life. You really only get one go-around on Earth, one life to live, before your time is up, and the chance to do anything is lost forever. As far as I knew, there was nothing before and nothing after, and anything I did not do voluntarily would be a chance wasted in life.

My thoughts drifted to grand things, to the loftiest of ambitions. To change the world, to truly leave an impact was something I thought above me, something I could never do. But what use was thinking I couldn’t do something? As difficult as it was to do, I had never tried it before, and I didn’t know for sure that I couldn’t do it. And if I never tried, then I would have gone through life simply telling myself I had limits without ever knowing. All these things I never ventured to attempt were simply things I had convinced myself I was incapable of. But what if I took a chance in life? What if I stopped fearing the unknown, and left escapist fantasy and complacency behind?

COVID-19 brought me to the realization that if I told myself that because of who I was, and because the world was so large and ruled by people so powerful, I would never be able to bring about change in the world, and that the more people like me believed in this idea, the more set in stone the current order would be. The highest heights are only achievable because we have been told that they are nigh-unreachable; even if you are incapable of getting there, the effort itself is laudable, and on the chance you do succeed, you’ve made your mark.

The world, I realized, was getting worse, and that for all the fortune I received in life, I owed it to the world to try and save it. If I stopped believing that changing the world was audacious, and focused simply on trying to change it, maybe I could be successful. I started writing, seeking out others who had similar ideas, trying to formulate a solid set of ideas about how the world could be saved, how we can move forward from here. And that led me to the most important part — as far as I can possibly go, as much as I can possibly do to help the world, I cannot do it alone. And so, I sought to find others, to create something greater than myself, bigger than me.

As I said in the beginning, our world has been dramatically influenced before by belief, and not just in Christianity. Major world religions — Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism; nationalistic identity and pride — it’s driven people in the billions to wage wars, to find love, to travel great journeys, and to devote their lives to higher callings. Belief is a powerful thing, because it’s what shakes people out of a groove and into action. Regardless of what people think of me, regardless of whether or not I succeed, and if what I do builds anything that lasts, regardless of who I am and where I come from, I believe that the world is malleable, that I can at least set a stone rolling down the path that may one day loose a boulder that knocks it all into place.

Orion is the culmination of what I hope and believe in. An organization of those with the will to shape history, to move us off the course we’re headed on, by reminding the people of the world that the power is in their hands. I labored for far too long under the delusion that the workings of politics were something I could never reach, that I was powerless, that I was just one person. But every person is an integral part of this world, and when we realize what we can do and how we can go about doing it, the goals that seemed unachievable move within reach.

I know that this essay was a departure from my usual style of writing, but I wanted to touch on what motivated me to found Orion, and what motivates me to aim higher in everything I do. I firmly believe that either I, or the things I leave behind, can make a difference, instead of allowing my fear to make me an accessory to a destructive pattern. And if you are reading this, and you have a desire to make a change for the better, the first step is believing.

- DKTC FL

[xb-squaredx]

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Review: The Darkest Timeline

There are….a LOT of Dragon Ball games out there, so many that they start to blur together. The latest flavor of the month, the Xenoverse series, does admittedly have an interesting premise though. Players are inducted into the Time Patrol, an organization that works to correct any inconsistencies in the universe’s timeline and ensure events work out as they were originally intended. For our purposes, that means making sure the classic fights of the Dragon Ball series end as they originally did. I can’t speak much for the first Xenoverse game, but I DID play the second one, and while it has a strong premise, multiple issues present in the gameplay and overall story serve to bog the game down, making for a flawed, bloated experience.

Just as in the first game, the big draw here is creating your own custom characters and inserting them into the Dragon Ball universe and I definitely see the appeal. Players have five races to choose from, each with their own ups and downs. Saiyans are great attackers, and can later gain a Super Saiyan transformation to bolster their offense, for one. Humans are balanced overall, while Namekians rely more on greater health and defense, as do the Majin class, with Frieza’s race generally lacking in stamina but doing well elsewhere. Each race also gains some exclusive perks with certain major questlines in the game, usually leading to their own unique powerup, though most of these quests are exercises in frustration. Sparing with Vegeta to unlock your Super Saiyan form is fine, as is rising up the ranks of the Frieza force, but the other races aren’t so lucky, their challenges being tedious, with Namekians getting the worst mission of them all: constantly having to find Dragon Balls while fending off attacks from Frieza’s forces. Majin’s will also find that their exclusive transformation, the Pure Form, is pretty lackluster. Other than that, the races play similarly enough that players should be able to just pick their favorite…that said, the fact that each character is treated as its own save file and you’d have to start from absolute scratch in the game to play as the other races…I didn’t exactly get to play around with them all and stuck with my initial choice for the bulk of the game.

The game itself is a pretty standard affair when it comes to the many Dragon Ball games out there. Everything from Ki blasts to Instant Transmission is included here, with a combat system that’s simple, but flexible enough to result in some fun bouts that feels true to the source material. Slamming foes across the wide-open stages, then teleporting behind them to nail them with a Kamehameha never gets old��at least when it works. The game’s systems feel a little finicky at times, with enemies randomly popping out of combo strings or your teleported strike not quite lining up. The camera getting stuck in certain structures can also be a hassle, but generally you can fly away and reorient yourself fairly well.

I enjoyed the wide- array of abilities players can acquire through the game, some as rewards for completing quests and some learned right from characters in the series. Want to learn Krillin’s Destructo Disk or Vegeta’s Final Flash? Track them down and you can certainly do so. From blast-style special moves to melee-oriented moves, there are even the rare buff or debuff moves to mess around with, coupled with flashy Ultimate moves to finish foes off…if you can line it up correctly anyway. Personally speaking, a great many moves in the game…aren’t all that great, or are either too specialized or impractical to use all that regularly. The stronger moves tend to have a LOT of prep time, flashy animations that play before the attack that give opponents ample time to flee, even if you do your best to combo into the moves and hit a downed opponent. While the combat is certainly fun, there are some real glaring issues when it comes to the game’s overall balance.

At the start of the game, enemies are pretty laid-back about getting smacked around, and you’ll often barely be in any danger, but the difficulty ramps up quite quickly and after a point computers start to blatantly cheat and exploit their advantages for all they’re worth in lieu of providing something more fair. If you happen to use the guard breaking attack to drain their stamina, for example, you’ll find it recharges for CPUs FAR faster than it ever would for a player, and seeing as stamina is used to teleport out of combos, this means that even if you play the game optimally, the computer won’t let you get too much damage off. Some later-game optional quests even have them automatically dodge special attacks and blatantly use input-reading to react to actions the player hasn’t even performed yet. Coupled with missions in which multiple enemies will gang up on you at a time, the game gets actively less fun to play the further you go. While there certainly are a lot of missions, from the story missions to side-quest analogues in Parallel Quests, raid-bosses in Expert Missions as well as multiplayer sparring, I lost interest in the game rather quickly and found a lot of the extra content simply wasn’t worth the frustration.

It’s a shame, because the game has some strong moments and fun nods to the series that nearly won me back over to the side of enjoying the game. It was just fun to learn from Krillin, to run around the hub world of Con Con City and learn emotes from other in-game characters that cosplayed as Yamcha or Tien. Some story beats were cool, bringing back characters I hadn’t seen in a long time and in many ways, Xenoverse 2 feels like it’s trying to be a “greatest hits” of the Dragon Ball universe…but it still falls short.

With a set-up around fixing inconsistencies in the Dragon Ball timeline, the game has some great opportunities for some “What if?!” style stories. Unfortunately, the game always drops you in RIGHT before history has a chance to be altered, and said alterations are usually either “villain gets a sudden powerup!” or “a movie villain shows up suddenly!” What good ideas there are, like you and Goku tag teaming against Frieza and Cooler on a dying Namek or both Nappa and Vegeta deciding to go Great Ape IMMEDIATELY upon fighting the Z Warriors is drowned out by the same tired scenarios every single Dragon Ball game seems intent on recreating. It’s gotten tiring to start a game like this fighting Raditz, then Vegeta and Nappa, then the Ginyu Force, then Frieza, and so on and so on. Despite characters from Dragon Ball GT being included in the game as well, the main story does next to nothing with them, being relegated to side-quests. It’s a plot filled with missed opportunities. There are some parallel quests that attempt to shake things up, but you have to wade through an awful lot of mediocre ones to find them.

On the whole Xenoverse isn’t too bad on presentation, the cel-shading making the characters look about as good as any other Dragon Ball game (even if FighterZ looks much better in my eyes), with a decent rock-filled soundtrack and most of the iconic voice cast being retained, but there are still some rough spots. Many environments don’t look all that impressive, for one, and while the voice work is generally OK, there are many small issues. The opening cinematic, for one, has atrocious lip-synching, to the point that it’s nonexistent, alongside voice direction that doesn’t reflect the mood of the scene. Bardock is meant to yell Frieza’s voice in rage, but merely says it with grumbling annoyance. Sometimes spoken lines don’t match up with the lines in the text boxes, and at times emphasis is placed on the wrong parts of sentences. They’re small flaws, but they begin to add up over time and really distracted me. On top of that, various voice lines get cut off by the transition to cutscenes if you defeat enemies fast enough, and yet at times the game will leave the enemy with a sliver of health and force the dialogue to play out with no rhyme or reason …and I’m not sure which one is a bigger annoyance. Lastly, for the Nintendo Switch version that I played, the bulk of the game runs at 30 FPS, though one-on-one matches get a bump up to 60 FPS. It didn’t really bother me much, but it’s something I figured I should mention.

On the subject of that, the Switch version comes with unique motion control options for performing special and ultimate attacks with the Joy Cons. In a fast-paced game like this though, I choose to ignore them entirely. I also pretty much ignored all possible local or multiplayer modes, so I have no real opinion on them. I’m fairly certain the game is better with friends at the helm of allies, as opposed to the at times brainless AI though.

I haven’t played many Dragon Ball games in the last few years due to fatigue. Many of the games kept trying to reinvent the wheel, while simultaneously barely doing anything to differentiate themselves from each other. While Xenoverse has a lot going for it, the appeal of a created-character in the Dragon Ball universe is a strong one, I find the combat to be a bit too limited and the AI too cheap to really enjoy or recommend. And while the game allows you to duke it out with other players, it’s not quite a fighting game and I think you could do better with games that already exist or will be available soon.

I don’t hate Xenoverse 2 by any stretch, and I did have fun while playing a good deal of it, but it’s a series that’s not for me in the end. In a game with such a strong premise and having so many elements it could have pulled from other games, it feels a bit half-baked. Lacking in creativity and excelling in a lot of fluff and frustration, Xenoverse 2 is a game that should have aimed higher and seems instead content with minor tweaks to the first game, instead of taking the time to really iron out the kinks and make something special.

Until next time,

-B

[junker-town]

Josh Sargent is unlike any player in USMNT history

*We know you’ve been burnt before, but trust us.

You’ve probably heard less about Josh Sargent than several other young United States men’s national team players since the squad started undergoing its post-Trinidad & Tobago overhaul. Sargent has six caps and a pair of USMNT goals, but unlike Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, he hasn’t been installed as a first-choice starter for club or country. Yet.

All signs point to the 18-year-old Sargent being the USMNT’s breakout star over the next year. He looks more polished with each passing month, and he has a set of skills that no American male has ever shown before. He’s much more likely to become his country’s best ever center forward than he is to fail at making an impact with the national team.

But before I go any further, I have to ask myself: should I even be saying this?

American soccer fans have been scarred for life by Freddy Adu, who failed to maximize his potential after becoming the youngest American ever signed to a professional contract at 14 years old. Whenever a young male American player shows exceptional talent, a large contingent of USMNT fans do a strange thing where they warn others not to get too excited because he might never get good. This is a bonkers exercise given that players like Pulisic and McKennie have already proven that they are good enough to play in the Champions League, and thus are definitively Not Freddy Adu.

Still, Sargent by comparison has only played 56 minutes for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, so hyping him up as the next big thing is a bit more ... let’s say, emotionally risky. We don’t have a body of hard evidence that Sargent can consistently perform at the top professional level. Getting attached to the idea of him as the USMNT’s star striker for the next decade could end in serious heartbreak for you, the USMNT fan.

I am here to advocate for you doing that anyway, because holy shit y’all, Josh Sargent rules. I invite you to watch a seven-minute and 28-second highlight video to get you excited about him. I understand that is a pretty long time out here on the 2019 Internet, but I respect you, and I swear I wouldn’t present such a thing if I didn’t think it was worthwhile.

There are some nice goals in these clips, but more impressive are the turns and first-touch passes. The USMNT has never had a striker with this kind of brain and touch as a teenager. Hell, they might not have had a grown adult striker this good.

Sargent hails from St. Louis, where he was a dominant player in the Development Academy and on youth national teams before he started his professional career. After a three-year stint with the Under-17 national squad, culminating in a three-goal performance in the U-17 World Cup, he got an early promotion to the Under-20s. Sargent hit the ground running there too, scoring four goals in five games and becoming the youngest American man to score in a U-20 World Cup. He had the opportunity to sign a homegrown deal with Sporting Kansas City, but turned it down to sign for Werder Bremen on his 18th birthday.

“I believe in life you have to do what is hard for you in order to build yourself as a person.” —Josh Sargent

And admittedly, there has been a bit of a learning curve for Sargent at Werder. “They’re very strict and when they want it one way, they want it that way,” Sargent told me in October. “You definitely have to come ready for training every day. And the speed of play, of course, is very fast, so you have to be ready for that, too.”

He wasn’t placed in the first team right away, but was instead asked to prove himself with Werder Bremen II, in the fourth division of German soccer. However, it only took him 12 games and just over 1000 minutes — a short time period in which he scored seven goals — to convince the club he was ready for the senior team.

And in four substitute appearances with the big-boy squad, Sargent has scored twice. His equalizer against RB Leipzig was particularly impressive. Sargent got involved in the build-up before arriving late in the box to finish.

That play in particular highlights something Sargent can bring to the USMNT that has been missing for its entire history. Managers have always been forced to choose between two different kinds of limited strikers:

1. Guys who offered up excellent non-scoring skills like work rate, hold-up play, and passing vision, but lacked explosiveness.

2. Strikers who were a threat to score a goal from nothing, but didn’t offer much else to the team.

All of the top strikers in USMNT history have been severely limited in some way. Eric Wynalda busted his ass and had good finishing instincts, but he was squeezing every last goal he could out of limited physical talents and the inadequate technical instruction of his time. Brian McBride, beloved for his toughness and unselfishness, couldn’t create chances for himself against top opposition. Jozy Altidore is maligned by fans for his inability to play without a strike partner, his poor stints in England, and his role in the 2017 USMNT’s collapse, but he is, despite those things, by far the most efficient scoring striker in USMNT history.

The two best scorers that the USMNT has ever had, Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan, weren’t true center forwards. Donovan never played up top on his own, and Dempsey played limited minutes in that role. Both were always utilized out wide or underneath a bigger target man.

Sargent is a different animal than all of these guys. He has the physical ability, work rate, and movement off the ball to play up top on his own, creating chances for others and himself at an equal clip. He has displayed the saucy skills of Dempsey, the hold-up play of McBride, and the poaching instincts of Wynalda in one player.

Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Sargent, right, celebrates his goal for the USMNT in a friendly against Bolivia, alongside teammate (and fellow young star) Christian Pulisic.

The big “what if” questions about Sargent are the same we have about every teenager: Can he get a little bit better in all aspects of his game? And, can he adjust to the speed of top level pro soccer? But that’s it. With Altidore (and all of the other top striker prospects to come out of the U.S. youth ranks), coaches were praying he’d develop entire new skillsets as an adult. Sargent is already adequate, at the very least, at everything you look for in a striker.

There’s no precedent for a player like him in the USMNT, which puts more pressure on him than his peers. Who can we even compare him to?

Pulisic will be expected to live up to the production of Donovan, and he’s already better at the club level than Donovan ever was. McKennie will be expected to match or surpass the career of Michael Bradley, and he’s already reached a similar status at club level. Sargent will be a bitter disappointment if he ends up matching the career of McBride or Altidore. To be considered someone who lived up to his potential, Sargent will need to be the best striker to ever play for the United States.

I’m betting on him to pull it off because beyond his skill, Sargent also has the right mentality. He has been deliberate about putting himself in the right situations to develop.

“MLS was definitely an option for me at first,” Sargent told American Soccer Now in 2017. “It would have been nice. Everyone speaks English and it’s only three hours away. But I believe in life you have to do what is hard for you in order to build yourself as a person.”

Sargent also talks about creating chances for other people as much as scoring goals. “I want to score goals for them and create as many chances as I can,” he told me when I asked about his short-term goals with Werder. “It would be an amazing feeling to get a start. But to start contributing to the team, assisting, scoring, would be the best feeling.”

Sargent can be an unprecedented player in the history of the program. And as such, he could be the key to all of the other young stars truly reaching their potentials, too.

When asked about what skills he brings to the table, he reiterated: “When people watch me and see me play, they know I create chances. When I get to know players and play more and more with them, they see I can contribute assists and score goals.”

Sargent says all of these things in a very serious tone. This is entirely subjective analysis, of course, but he has a different look in his eye and expression in his voice than other young players. While his peers come off as either nervous or excited during their early senior national team call-ups, Sargent comes off as focused and determined.

It seems really obvious that the USMNT’s top striker prospect is the player worth getting most excited about — he’s the one that scores all the goals, after all. But Sargent can be an unprecedented player in the history of the program. And as such, he could be the key to all of the other young stars truly reaching their potentials, too.

And if you feel I’m going too far, stop worrying. I promise you that he isn’t listening, and if someone brings the hype to his attention, he won’t care. He will have zero reaction, then promptly spend the next day trying to get better at soccer.

So yes, it’s OK to get excited about Josh Sargent. You’ve been burnt before, but you shouldn’t distrust your eyes. And you should never let the past ruin your fantasies.

[bluetapes]

Blue Tapes is an algorithm

The long Q/A version of an interview I did with  Kristoffer Patrick Cornils for the German magazine HHV on the thinking behind the Blue Tapes project.

What was your motivation to start the label back in 2012? What are you goals with the label?

Distracting myself from the doom, really. I think that’s all any creative endeavours are. I started the label as a visual art project to give myself something creative and positive to occupy my time with after I’d been knocked on my arse by a particularly nasty bout of depression. I think it was helpful to just have this little hobbyist project that involved going away and spending a lot of time thinking about colours and sounds. Before starting the label I had been a music journalist and I was sick of the sound of my own ‘voice’ and everyone else’s, really. Doing something small and simple and abstract and just for me was very rewarding. A few months into that, other people found it, and some of them liked it.

Stylistically, you don't seem to have any boundaries. What does a record have to bring to the table to be released through Blue Tapes, or what is the lowest common denominator between Katie Gately, accapella Death Metal and the keyboard improvisations of a 13-year-old?

Blue Tapes is an algorithm. There are three axes and the artists that score most highly along these axes are the ones I choose to work with. The axes could be labelled a) Is this something that people have heard before?; b) Do I like it?; and c) Will other people like it? That last one is the hardest to quantify. I’m never short of finding amazing, innovative music that I love, but I’ve lost so much money through doing the vinyl series in particular that I’ve had to face up to the fact that there’s not much point in releasing records that only a tiny proportion of humans will respond to.

(I mean, having said that, my next release IS a microtonal ambient black metal LP…)

Although there is a lot of musical diversity throughout the series I do put a huge amount of thought into why I might want to release something and it has been curated to make sense as a series, even if the only person that it ultimately makes sense to is me? From a marketing perspective it’s a nightmare, obviously.

How do you find the artists that release on Blue Tapes? Do you do your A&R work on the internet or do you rather use your personal connections?

For the early releases, I would often have an idea of the KIND of thing I would want to release - say an acapella death metal album - and then I’d go online and try and find somebody who with a bit of convincing and a bit of imagination could deliver that. Soundcloud was a pretty invaluable resource for this.

Some very good friends of mine started the 20 Jazz Funk Greats blog back in 2004. I started blogging for it more after starting the label and I found a few of the artists (Plains Druid, Unfollow, Trupa Trupa) through that.

Very rarely it might be somebody who contacts me (hi Benjamin Finger) but mostly it’s me trying to imagine the music I want to release and then finding the nearest thing to that sound in my head in real life. (Without me having to get my hands dirty and make it myself… because I suck at the music.)

In 2014, you have launched X-Ray Records, a vinyl sublabel to Blue Tapes. What was the idea behind that and how do you decide if a record's coming out on tape or vinyl?

This is part of the process that I’m still tinkering with and trying to get right, but mostly it just came down to whether it felt right to do so. I’d had the visual concept for the series in my head for a while, and it made sense to try and reissue some of the bigger tape releases on vinyl cos they’d had an impact and a lot of people had missed out. Mostly I just really wanted to own a copy of the Tashi Dorji album on see-through vinyl so I took out a bank loan to get one! Sort of a foolish enterprise, but I’m unrepentant.

People can subscribe to your tape or vinyl series and even Blue Tapes shirts. What was your idea behind that subscription service and how have people responded to it so far?

There’s a small coterie of subscribers who I guess are kind of at the heart of the BT/XR family.

The first germ of an idea relating to Blue Tapes was that I was really into making cyanotypes at the time and I wanted to find some kind of a purpose for them, to justify their existence, so I had a sort of mad idea to make a series of limited edition t-shirts with cyanotype prints on them, that you could subscribe to. I was quite excited by it as a concept but it probably wasn’t destined to register with the outside world very well! Somewhere down the line, instead of the art being a t-shirt, it became a tape with a piece of music or other sound on it and an image that could collectively be represented by a serial number, rather than a title.

I always thought the subscription element was important in a way, because I think the series does only make sense if you view it as a curated body of work rather than discrete entities, but admittedly that’s not actually how people consume or usually think about music.

Your artwork is very recognisable not only because it's, well, mostly blue. What's the concept behind that and how do you create those washed out effects?

So the process I mentioned before, cyanotype, is a pre-camera photographic technique that uses sunlight and water and chemicals to create images. It was originally developed for scientists and engineers to reproduce diagrams or other plans. Because the chemicals produce a blue-coloured print, they became known as ‘blueprints’.

I find analogue processes a lot more interesting to think about than digital processes, so cassette tapes and cyanotypes made very natural bedfellows for me.

Some of the images are created using other ‘alternative process’ photographic techniques - those very ‘washed out’ colours are done using a technique called transaquatype, where you use water to try and intentionally make the colours run - but I think the best ones are the cyanotypes, particularly the cyanotype abstracts.

The X-Ray series, as suggested by the name, takes a very different approach. Is that perhaps a reference to those literal X-Rays from the Soviet era on which people cut music because they lacked the ressources for vinyl?

The name is a reference to that, for sure. But it also links back to the cyanotypes. The first step in making a cyanotype using the modern method is to create an enlarged negative of your source image on acetate. These enlarged negatives are pretty cool objects in their own right, and I started to think they’d make really cool vinyl packaging. So, for instance, if you take the Tashi Dorji LP, the artwork is actually the negative of the original tape artwork.

Held up to the light it looks a little like an x-ray, so X-Ray Records. It could have been ‘Negative Records’ or something but that sounds way too much like a hardcore label! And, y’know, also the Soviet thing.

Some of the earlier releases lack pretty much any information, which can be quite confusing for people who don't neatly organise their collection like I do, I guess. How do the artists respond to this serialisation? I can imagine that some would see their work compromised if they had to name it after a catalogue number.

No one’s really complained about it, but you’re probably right. I think with this thing it was almost like starting a band or something, rather than joining someone else’s band. I was able to say, look, this is the concept, if you want to be a part of it then cool but if not then no worries. It IS confusing and I would never judge anyone for not wanting to get onboard with it!

But it was important to me to present the series as a process that was configured to output a singular piece of art every month, rather than as a ‘label’, which actually felt more dishonest - it’s not a business, it doesn’t make any money. The aesthetics of the label and its cataloguing were contrived that way to try and make the ‘art’ the physical rectangular object that you hold in your hand, and as a self-conscious attempt to get away from the idea of the ‘album’, which for a while I genuinely thought might be one of the most boring ways there is to present music.

Maybe I also thought that by starving the listener of as much context and extraneous information as possible I might help them to have a more honest/profound relationship with the music, in the same way that music always sounds better when you listen to it in the dark. (Note: This is wishful and possibly deluded thinking.)

The vinyl series has titles, though.

You've put out around 30 records so far, but what would you say is the most important one? Strictly personally speaking or in regards to the label.

In regards to the label the most important one was the Katie Gately tape. It’s also just an important piece of music, I think. It set a new bar.

I do think there is a common trait that unites a lot of Blue Tapes music, despite the disparities in genre, and I think it’s unique to us because I don’t hear it in that much other stuff that I listen to as a music fan, apart from some ancient musics like gagaku sometimes. It’s a quality rather than a sound - and often the releases that have the most of this quality, or ‘feeling’, are the ones I’m most fond of.

It’s entirely subjective and also very difficult to describe, but the way I experience it is like the sensation you might get when you’re really exhausted - like, exhausted to the ends of your nerves - but instead of it being a sick feeling, it’s euphoric. Your brain switches off, stops decoding things, and stimuli wash over you - but not in a passive, bored way, they seep into every nook and cranny of your consciousness and flood it with colour and sensation. Almost like a high, I guess, but a sober, unpsychedelic one. I’m not a religious person but that particular communion I have with this music is the closest I get to something spiritual in my life.

These feelings and ego-annihilating qualities seem to be more present in very minimal music - the Tashi Dorji, Library of Babel and Mats Gustafsson records are swarming with it - but I hear it in some very maximal music, too. I hear it in Jute Gyte.

I don’t know enough about Pauline Oliveros to know if this is what she was describing with ‘deep listening’, but you could reasonably apply the term to the sounds we’re presenting for you.

[jesseneufeld]

Confidence On Camera for Health Coaches, Entrepreneurs and Public Figures

Today we welcome guest author Arriane Alexander, Business Coach and Video Expert, and creator of the Lights, Camera, CASH Coaching Program.

How do you stand out from the crowd online?

Whether you are a health coach or an entrepreneur, you are probably trying to figure out how to grow your business and make an impact with your audience. You’re probably aware that creating videos is part of that strategy. The whole world just went virtual, so now is the time to play a bigger game in your business by using video marketing.

Did you know that 80% of people would prefer to learn about a business or product by video versus reading from a blog? And by 2021, video traffic will be 80% of all internet traffic.

Are you ready? 

Using videos to grow your audience on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms is essential if you want to: ?

Draw in new clients

Grow your business

Build your brand

Create strong relationships

Launch a new product or program

But, you’re scrolling through Instagram and see all these other people rocking it on videos and a little voice creeps in that says you’re not good enough.

Ugh. I get it.

“My first video was perfect and amazing!” SAID NO ONE EVER

When I first started doing videos many years ago, I had zero confidence. And admittedly, I wasn’t that great on video. The camera was shaky, I was stumbling over my words, and I had no idea how to start or finish my videos. I was so nervous and my videos were all over the place with no structure and no calls to action. One time, I was in the middle of a Facebook Live, and my tripod completely fell over. I was a jumbled hot mess. My thoughts were telling me, you’ll never get this, you’re not good enough, you can’t do it…

But I kept going. I was determined to understand how to create powerful videos, so I tried different things, made many mistakes and finally created a structure for myself. I watched my videos (even though it was painful sometimes) to see what I could do better. And the consistency worked! I got more confident on video and clients started coming to me easily because they had seen my videos and felt like they could trust me.

You need to be willing to get out of your stuffy-adult-I-should-know-how-to-do-this mindset, and get into a beginners mindset, take risks and make mistakes in order to grow your business.

5 Expert Tips to Be Confident on Camera

To get you started, I’m sharing the same pro tips I use with my VIP Lights, Camera, Cash clients every day. I know you are probably working from home and these pro tips will help you feel more confident creating videos in that environment.

You’ll want to address:

Lighting

Camera angle

Who you’re speaking to

Background

Structure

Let’s dig deeper into each of these.

1. Lighting

We must be able to see your eyes, because that’s how we connect with you. How do you create good lighting?

DON’T: Never set your light source behind you, because it will create a shadow on your face and viewers won’t be able to see you. Also, avoid shooting videos in direct sunlight, as it overexposes your face and creates harsh shadows.

DO: Make sure your light source is in FRONT of you, so it reflects on your face. If possible, sit in front of a window or place a light source in front of you. If you need to, order a ring light that will work wonders for your face.

2. Camera Angle

Looking down into the camera can create a double chin that isn’t even there in real life. You can create a sleeker look for your face just by adjusting the camera angle.

DON’T: Set your laptop or phone on your desk or table and look DOWN into the video camera. When your head is tilted down, it brings the energy of the video down, instead of up. It makes you look like you are talking down to the person who is watching you. Plus, you’ll highlight your chin, when you want to focal point to be your eyes.

DO: Raise your laptop or phone to eye level or a little above to create a natural eye line and smooth angle for your jawline. This makes your face and jawline look more streamlined on camera.

How do you do this? Use a box, storage bin, or stack of books to put your laptop on, or use a small tripod for your phone. Be sure your platform is secure so that your equipment doesn’t fall. Creating this good camera angle makes a HUGE difference in how you come across on camera.

3. Speak To One Person At A Time

There are some basic rules of marketing, and one of them is to always speak to one person at a time. Think of TV ads – they are geared towards YOU, not a group of people.

DON’T: A common mistake I see 99% of people making on video is to say “Hi you guys, I’m here to talk about xxx…” But think about it…who is actually watching you? Is it a crowd of people around one phone watching your video? NOPE. It’s ONE PERSON.

DO: Speak to one person only. Imagine your Ideal Client that you are speaking to, and speak to him or her directly. Use words like “you” and “your” so that you are creating a relationship with the person who is watching your video. You want each person watching to feel like you are speaking directly to him or her.

4. Background

We all know most people are doing business at home right now, and space might be tight to create videos, but it is important to be aware of what the camera sees in the background.

DON’T: Have a background that includes your dirty dishes, an un-made bed, or a bathroom door open. Anything that is in the background can be distracting for the viewer, and you want to keep all the focus on yourself.

DO: Make sure the area behind you is tidy and has the least amount of clutter in the view. You can bring your computer or phone closer to your face so there is less background to see. Try to find a space in your home that doesn’t have too much busy-ness going on. Also, you could use a cloth or paper backdrop for videos.

Extra tip: I get a lot of questions about using a virtual background. These can look unnatural and alter the outline of your head and body. The only way this works well and looks really good is if you have a green screen behind you.

5. Structure

It’s easy to get lost in what you are saying while you are creating your videos, so it’s important to have a structure to follow.

DON’T: Turn on your video without an intention and structure of what to say. You might end up rambling on and on in your videos and turn off your viewers.

DO: Be clear about your bullet points before you turn on the camera. Jot them down on a sticky note and put them next to your camera if you need a reminder. Then if you get off track, you can come back to your notes.

Remember, creating videos is a skill, and it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s just like learning a new language or playing the piano. It takes consistency, patience and practice. Be nice to yourself in the learning process and try to have fun even when you make mistakes. We all make mistakes. As you get more confident creating videos, you will reach your audience quicker and easier so they can know you, trust you, and like you.

If you want more support in how to be confident and rock your videos, grab my FREE 7-Day Video Breakthrough Series and Bonus Action Guide: 3 Steps To On-Camera Confidence. This will help you gain the confidence you need to use videos to create the 6 (or even 7!) figure business of your dreams!

About the author: Arriane Alexander, Business Coach and Video Expert

As the creator of the Lights, Camera, CASH Coaching Program, Arriane has helped coaches, consultants, health and fitness experts and other online entrepreneurs take courageous action to create consistent, powerful videos that people actually want to watch. Working with Arriane has been known to increase your business by $750,000 in 6 months, help you actually look forward to turning on a live video, and fill your Mastermind program in just two weeks. Arriane’s video expertise has been featured on Good Morning LaLa Land, The Primal Blueprint Podcast, and The Health Coach Radio Podcast.

When she’s not teaching YOU how to be fabulous in front of the camera, you can also see her on TV working as an actress in some of your favorite shows like S.W.A.T., People vs OJ Simpson, Grey’s Anatomy and Young Sheldon. This cowgirl originally from Oklahoma is also generally working up a sweat on the Santa Monica beach path, making sure the sunshine still feels good.

FREE 7-day Video Breakthrough Series

Follow Arriane on Instagram

Follow Arriane on Facebook

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[lauramalchowblog]

Confidence On Camera for Health Coaches, Entrepreneurs and Public Figures

Today we welcome guest author Arriane Alexander, Business Coach and Video Expert, and creator of the Lights, Camera, CASH Coaching Program.

How do you stand out from the crowd online?

Whether you are a health coach or an entrepreneur, you are probably trying to figure out how to grow your business and make an impact with your audience. You’re probably aware that creating videos is part of that strategy. The whole world just went virtual, so now is the time to play a bigger game in your business by using video marketing.

Did you know that 80% of people would prefer to learn about a business or product by video versus reading from a blog? And by 2021, video traffic will be 80% of all internet traffic.

Are you ready? 

Using videos to grow your audience on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms is essential if you want to: ?

Draw in new clients

Grow your business

Build your brand

Create strong relationships

Launch a new product or program

But, you’re scrolling through Instagram and see all these other people rocking it on videos and a little voice creeps in that says you’re not good enough.

Ugh. I get it.

“My first video was perfect and amazing!” SAID NO ONE EVER

When I first started doing videos many years ago, I had zero confidence. And admittedly, I wasn’t that great on video. The camera was shaky, I was stumbling over my words, and I had no idea how to start or finish my videos. I was so nervous and my videos were all over the place with no structure and no calls to action. One time, I was in the middle of a Facebook Live, and my tripod completely fell over. I was a jumbled hot mess. My thoughts were telling me, you’ll never get this, you’re not good enough, you can’t do it…

But I kept going. I was determined to understand how to create powerful videos, so I tried different things, made many mistakes and finally created a structure for myself. I watched my videos (even though it was painful sometimes) to see what I could do better. And the consistency worked! I got more confident on video and clients started coming to me easily because they had seen my videos and felt like they could trust me.

You need to be willing to get out of your stuffy-adult-I-should-know-how-to-do-this mindset, and get into a beginners mindset, take risks and make mistakes in order to grow your business.

5 Expert Tips to Be Confident on Camera

To get you started, I’m sharing the same pro tips I use with my VIP Lights, Camera, Cash clients every day. I know you are probably working from home and these pro tips will help you feel more confident creating videos in that environment.

You’ll want to address:

Lighting

Camera angle

Who you’re speaking to

Background

Structure

Let’s dig deeper into each of these.

1. Lighting

We must be able to see your eyes, because that’s how we connect with you. How do you create good lighting?

DON’T: Never set your light source behind you, because it will create a shadow on your face and viewers won’t be able to see you. Also, avoid shooting videos in direct sunlight, as it overexposes your face and creates harsh shadows.

DO: Make sure your light source is in FRONT of you, so it reflects on your face. If possible, sit in front of a window or place a light source in front of you. If you need to, order a ring light that will work wonders for your face.

2. Camera Angle

Looking down into the camera can create a double chin that isn’t even there in real life. You can create a sleeker look for your face just by adjusting the camera angle.

DON’T: Set your laptop or phone on your desk or table and look DOWN into the video camera. When your head is tilted down, it brings the energy of the video down, instead of up. It makes you look like you are talking down to the person who is watching you. Plus, you’ll highlight your chin, when you want to focal point to be your eyes.

DO: Raise your laptop or phone to eye level or a little above to create a natural eye line and smooth angle for your jawline. This makes your face and jawline look more streamlined on camera.

How do you do this? Use a box, storage bin, or stack of books to put your laptop on, or use a small tripod for your phone. Be sure your platform is secure so that your equipment doesn’t fall. Creating this good camera angle makes a HUGE difference in how you come across on camera.

3. Speak To One Person At A Time

There are some basic rules of marketing, and one of them is to always speak to one person at a time. Think of TV ads – they are geared towards YOU, not a group of people.

DON’T: A common mistake I see 99% of people making on video is to say “Hi you guys, I’m here to talk about xxx…” But think about it…who is actually watching you? Is it a crowd of people around one phone watching your video? NOPE. It’s ONE PERSON.

DO: Speak to one person only. Imagine your Ideal Client that you are speaking to, and speak to him or her directly. Use words like “you” and “your” so that you are creating a relationship with the person who is watching your video. You want each person watching to feel like you are speaking directly to him or her.

4. Background

We all know most people are doing business at home right now, and space might be tight to create videos, but it is important to be aware of what the camera sees in the background.

DON’T: Have a background that includes your dirty dishes, an un-made bed, or a bathroom door open. Anything that is in the background can be distracting for the viewer, and you want to keep all the focus on yourself.

DO: Make sure the area behind you is tidy and has the least amount of clutter in the view. You can bring your computer or phone closer to your face so there is less background to see. Try to find a space in your home that doesn’t have too much busy-ness going on. Also, you could use a cloth or paper backdrop for videos.

Extra tip: I get a lot of questions about using a virtual background. These can look unnatural and alter the outline of your head and body. The only way this works well and looks really good is if you have a green screen behind you.

5. Structure

It’s easy to get lost in what you are saying while you are creating your videos, so it’s important to have a structure to follow.

DON’T: Turn on your video without an intention and structure of what to say. You might end up rambling on and on in your videos and turn off your viewers.

DO: Be clear about your bullet points before you turn on the camera. Jot them down on a sticky note and put them next to your camera if you need a reminder. Then if you get off track, you can come back to your notes.

Remember, creating videos is a skill, and it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s just like learning a new language or playing the piano. It takes consistency, patience and practice. Be nice to yourself in the learning process and try to have fun even when you make mistakes. We all make mistakes. As you get more confident creating videos, you will reach your audience quicker and easier so they can know you, trust you, and like you.

If you want more support in how to be confident and rock your videos, grab my FREE 7-Day Video Breakthrough Series and Bonus Action Guide: 3 Steps To On-Camera Confidence. This will help you gain the confidence you need to use videos to create the 6 (or even 7!) figure business of your dreams!

About the author: Arriane Alexander, Business Coach and Video Expert

As the creator of the Lights, Camera, CASH Coaching Program, Arriane has helped coaches, consultants, health and fitness experts and other online entrepreneurs take courageous action to create consistent, powerful videos that people actually want to watch. Working with Arriane has been known to increase your business by $750,000 in 6 months, help you actually look forward to turning on a live video, and fill your Mastermind program in just two weeks. Arriane’s video expertise has been featured on Good Morning LaLa Land, The Primal Blueprint Podcast, and The Health Coach Radio Podcast.

When she’s not teaching YOU how to be fabulous in front of the camera, you can also see her on TV working as an actress in some of your favorite shows like S.W.A.T., People vs OJ Simpson, Grey’s Anatomy and Young Sheldon. This cowgirl originally from Oklahoma is also generally working up a sweat on the Santa Monica beach path, making sure the sunshine still feels good.

FREE 7-day Video Breakthrough Series

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The post Confidence On Camera for Health Coaches, Entrepreneurs and Public Figures appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Confidence On Camera for Health Coaches, Entrepreneurs and Public Figures published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

[entergamingxp]

It’s About Time feels about right • Eurogamer.net

It’s about time indeed: nearly 22 years after Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped released on the original PlayStation, the master of jorts returns. This time, though, it’s Spyro Reignited Trilogy studio Toys For Bob handling it, and so as much as I’d personally have loved to see a gritty, blood-and-guts reboot from Naughty Dog, most of the questions for Crash 4 are going to be about authenticity and faithfulness to the originals.

If that’s all you’re worried about then you can stop worrying. Crash 4 is plenty faithful – if anything it’s a bit too faithful, in fact, because while Toys For Bob seems to have nailed the character and playfulness of the world from what I’ve played, it’s also not just continued the trend of some utterly, fiendishly difficult platforming, but made it even harder. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is nails.

That, thankfully, is also where some of the changes have come in. A big one is the introduction of a new “Modern Mode”, that removes the entire concept of lives and game overs. I was enormously sceptical of this, in all honesty. The tension of the life system and the way it plays off the temptation to risk it all for a few more Wumpa fruit that might, just, tip you over the edge to another one is what the originals are all about. Removing it in Modern Mode takes away an entire layer of the game, but it’s also a welcome boon because of the heightened difficulty. Crash 4 isn’t just as tough as some early Crash games – I think it might actually be tougher.

Part of this is undoubtedly because the three levels I played were from somewhere in the middle of Crash 4’s story, meaning I was without the usual few hours of onboarding you’d get from earlier levels that introduce the systems. Instead it’s straight in, and those new systems are pretty significant. The first relates to Crash and Coco – both are playable throughout, although it was just Crash for the demo – who now have a built-in double jump an ever-so-slightly moveable camera: nothing major, but you can just nudge it a little to see slightly more of the level.

The platforming is devilishly difficult – sometimes cruelly so, but such is the appeal of the series.

Bigger than those, however, are the new masks. There are four new masks on top of the returning Aku Aku and Uka Uka, called the quantum masks. These, aptly, let you play with time and space. The first, Kupuna-Wa slowed time for everything around you, interplaying nicely with a new kind of time-limited crate, triggered into appearing by the usual exclamation marks, if old fans remember, and rapidly disappearing again unless you slow down time to get them. Where things get absolutely devilish is when those crates are coupled with impossibly fast environments that need slowing too. The first level I played, an ice level of all things, called Snow Way Out, used big gaps filled with occasional, rapidly-falling platforms dropping by, as well as those time-sensitive crates at hard-to-reach intervals. So you’ll be jumping, slowing time to platform on some moving objects, resuming regular time and landing on an exclamation box, slowing time again and doing more platforming to reach the timed crates – and probably dying and giving it another go.

The other mask, Lani-Loli, phases things – both crates and environmental hazards – in and out of existence. So you’ll see crate and object outlines and need to toggle them in and out at rapid speed to both get the crates and avoid the hazards, while platforming at the same time. This one was on the second level, Dino Crisis, which featured Bioshock Infinite-style rails that you lock onto, jumping above and dropping below to avoid hazards and get crates – it’s a so-so effect, making the game feel a little bit like an endless runner, but thankfully it’s only used in fairly brief moments as opposed to the entire thing. The second half of that level was, delightfully, a nightmarish towards-the-screen runner, away from a giant dinosaur.

Finally, the third level was actually a different version of the first, featuring the villain Neo Cortex as the playable character as a nice twist. Crash 4 has a kind of simultaneous story thing going on, you see, where it seems multiple characters are working their way through levels at the same time, often causing events to overlap. Midway through Snow Way Out as Crash or Coco, a large section will suddenly collapse – creating that time-based platforming area I mentioned earlier on – and as you return to the scene as Cortex you realise that was caused by him, attempting to catch you in a trap. So you’ll play through a level as Coco, say, then return to it and play the first half as Neo Cortex, get to the overlapping bit, and then it switches back to Coco’s perspective for the remainder, with new crates and placements added in to vary it up.

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Cortex himself also has a completely different set of skills to Crash and Coco. He only has a single, low jump, but instead of a spin he has a nice, zappy sci-fi gun, capable of smashing crates from range but also, much more importantly, transforming certain moving hazards into either solid platforms or, with a second shot, jiggly extra-bouncy versions. He also has a lengthy and faintly ridiculous headbutt-dash. Platforming with him is, surprise surprise, pretty tricky. Coming out of the dash you have a moment to slightly adjust for over- or under-shooting it, and that adjustment is both crucial and very hard to master. You’ll often come out of a dash exactly above the little platform you’re going for and then nudge yourself either side to it in a moment of panic.

When you do get more of a hang of it, it feels pretty great. Toys For Bob has created some far more elaborate environments than previous entries, and the combination of all their moving parts and the new, almost systemic-light abilities make the platforming feel like a combination of precision and a kind of on-the-fly puzzle solving. With Cortex that might be jumping and dashing horizontally between tight rows of instant-death Nitro crates to land on a single bouncy one, dashing precisely through some more, and so on. With Crash and Coco it’s juggling time and space, and with the bonus rounds – little mini stages you can access mid-level – some challenges were genuinely too hard for me to complete without spending all night on them. I’d imagine that with those two more unseen quantum masks and also more playable, returning characters (teased but currently unnamed), those combinations only get more elaborate.

Okay, it does look a lot better in motion. Still, you can’t say it’s not faithful to the originals.

The downside, arguably, is that I didn’t even want to think about these levels in classic mode. I was admittedly rushing at times, being ambitious and a little lazy, but at one point I think my death counter was over fifty – fifty – on a level in modern mode, just snapping back to the latest checkpoint and trying to collect the most difficult crates and gems off to the sides. It would be a lot less playing seriously on the classic mode, sure, but not that much less, which makes me worry that fans who come to Crash 4 wanting the exact same experience as the originals will struggle – let alone kids, which plenty of those fans were when they first got into the series.

There are other things I can pick at, if I really wanted to: Crash and co. continue to have issues with depth perception, it seems. Toys For Bob has included a little marker now where your character’s shadow would’ve been, to help indicate where you’ll land, but it’s still not the most consistent and arguably a little distracting. And modern mode itself felt a tiny bit flat, without the threat of the big Game Over driving it, although that may also be because of the lack of story context around it in my demo, so it’s no major issue.

Really though, this is the nature of a Crash Bandicoot game. Go back to the originals and they are, famously, very finickity at times, demanding a huge amount of patience and even temperament. They’re also wonderfully, intoxicatingly moreish – and full of character, which from the demo, and especially spending more time with Neo Cortex, Crash 4 seems to have in spades. In other words, even in leaving classic mode behind, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time feels about as faithful as it can get.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/its-about-time-feels-about-right-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-about-time-feels-about-right-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[marcusssanderson]

How to Change Your Life: 10 Ways To Live Your Best Life

Searching for how to change your life? Change is inevitable and we all face life-changing decisions at some point.

“Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change.” – Jim Rohn

Change is so many things. It’s scary, exciting, and unpredictable, but most of all its necessary. Think back on your life and your routine 20 years ago.

What was the most important thing in your world then? Who did you hang out with? What was your favorite restaurant? Are any of those things the same as they are today? I doubt it!

You’re a different person now, and in 10 years you’ll have different answers than you would today. But as we get older, we tend to be more resistant to change. We get set in our ways, our routines, and unintentionally close ourselves off from new experiences that can improve our lives.

Below are 10 ideas on how to change your life for the better. Discover how to bring positive change into your life.

How to change your life in 10 Ways

Shift to a Positive and Plentiful Mindset

Your mindset filters how you view your world, what you see and how you interpret every situation. If you have a negative, closed mindset you’re instantly cutting yourself off from opportunities on the horizon because you can’t see past the negative.

You attract what you put out there, and to welcome positive change into your life, you first need to believe it’s possible. You may have heard the quote, “whether you believe you can or can’t, you’re right.”

First, start recognizing where your current mindset is leading you. For example, when you’re presented with a new project at work, do you dwell on the myriad of things that could go wrong? Are you caught up in how hard this project could be?

Do you lack self-confidence? Instead, try thinking of just one way this could positively impact your life. You could learn a new skill set, make a new contact, or be trusted with larger projects.

Changing your mindset won’t happen instantly, but tuning in to how you interpret your surroundings and working towards seeing bigger and better outcomes will pave the way for positive changes in your life!

Here are 10 Signs It’s Time To Change Your Mindset.

Find a Mentor

When I changed careers, I reached out to a female coach who worked with women clients just like I aimed to do. She was nice enough to meet me for coffee and let me ask her questions about getting into the wellness business and has become a mentor to me ever since.

Whether you work with a mentor for your career, relationships, wellness or just life in general, your life is guaranteed to change for the better.

A mentor has been in your shoes and is empathetic to what you’re going through. They can shed light on things you’ve closed off – consciously or subconsciously – and guide you through changes you may not know how to navigate.

Here are a few sites to get you started:

Business Mentoring: Score.org (FREE small business mentoring) Life Coaching: Beautiful You Coaching Academy Career Coaching: TheMuse.com If you’re looking for health coaching, I would love to work with you! Sjkfitness.com

Cut Out Toxic Friends

We all have those friends who we’ve been friends with “for-ev-er”. Often, these are wonderfully fulfilling relationships, but have you ever wondered if you met them for the first time today if you’d be compatible?

Old or new, toxic friendships can bring you down and limit your potential for positive change. It can be hard to cut ties, but here are a few ways to create room in your life for healthier friendships:

If you’re feeling assertive: Let your pal know what’s bothering you. Her response—and actions—will tell you if it’s time to move along.

If you’re feeling passive: Pull back, make fewer plans, be polite but not overly friendly. (In other words, don’t be dishonest.)

Either way: Cultivate new friends who make you feel enriched, enlivened and embraced, because that is what good friendships do. 

Learn Something New

As children, basically everything we do is new. We are constantly learning new skills, and aren’t surprised when we encounter something we do not know. When you’re an adult, you tend to stick with what you know. Unless required, it’s just easier to go along with what you’re good at because the risk of failure is low.

However, when we open ourselves to learning something new, we’re presented with aspects of ourselves we either didn’t know or forgot as we grew up. This creates space for change by laying out possibilities for our life we didn’t know existed!

I took tap classes as a kid and recently found a studio in my neighborhood that offered beginner adult tap. It was strange learning as a beginner, something I used to be very proficient at, but I am loving it! It reopened this area of my life I forgot I enjoyed, I have a new hobby and am meeting neighbors I wouldn’t have before.

Starting as a beginner can be intimidating. Click here for tips on how to approach it with love.

Create a “Bucket List”…of Sorts

Many people have things on their “bucket list” of what they’d like to do in their lifetime. This is great in theory, but in reality, these dreams are often so big and their timeline unknown, that it’s easy to never actually do them.

By creating more realistic and time-sensitive lists, you’re much more likely to accomplish these new things you’d like to do, and will inevitably bring change to your life.

An example I see often is a list tied to a birthday; “40 things to do before I’m 40”, or “30 things I will try in my 30th year”. These can be small, “host a dinner party”, or big, “travel out of the country”, it’s up to you!

My list is in the making, but the idea is to get my husband and I out of our usual haunts. We live in Chicago which is known for its plethora of unique neighborhoods, yet we head to the same areas and establishments nearly every weekend.

I’m currently making a list of different neighborhoods we haven’t been to, and picking a specific thing to do – check out a certain bar, order a “famous” dish at a restaurant, see a show, etc. – so we have a plan.

It’s summer so we can bike which lets us see more of the city we have called home for over 8 years! My hope is to have a whole new list of “go-to” streets and restaurants.

Make a New Friend

When you’re young, it’s easy and natural to make new friends. Even in high school and college, it doesn’t take much effort as everyone around you is generally the same age and living in the same environment. As an adult, things are different. It takes more effort and can be a little awkward at first!

Making new friends is essential for growth and change as you’ll be connected to new groups of people who could change your perspective on anything and everything. Not sure how to navigate the world of adult friendships? Check out these 5 methods and become a pro!

Change Your Routine

I am admittedly a creature of habit. I love my routines and even after a wonderful vacation, have a sense of longing to “get back to normal”.

In many ways this works well; it lessens the number of decisions to make which has been shown to reduce stress, and it helps me plan my day with ease. But routine often leads to a rut, and that is no way to foster change!

The good news for those who are comforted by routine is that you don’t have to drastically alter everything to welcome change in your life.

Trying a new place for your morning coffee, taking a different route home from work, or switching up what you do for a workout are all small changes that can give you a fresh perspective on your day.

For a few morning ritual ideas you can use to shake things up, check out this post!

Find Your Passion

Before becoming a health coach, Sunday nights were rough. I didn’t look forward to my job and it finally got to where I couldn’t ignore my feeling of guilt for staying in a job my heart wasn’t fully in.

I couldn’t stomach spending my life doing something I wasn’t excited about. This discord was affecting my mood and, in turn, my life. But, what could I do? I needed a change but had no idea where to turn.

So, I started reexamining what brought joy to my life and when I felt my truest self. Finding your passion isn’t as easy as it seems it should be, but once you find something that you not only enjoy, but have a knack for, your world opens up with different paths you didn’t see before.

Even if you don’t feel the need to change careers, finding your passion through hobbies and volunteer work will indeed change your life. Need help discovering your inner light?

Here is a list of 7 podcasts to get the creative ball rolling! Think you’re on to something? Check out these 3 ways to determine if you’ve hit the passion jackpot.

Go With The (Creative) Flow

Have you ever been so into a project – cooking, reading, writing, puzzling, etc. – that an hour slips by without notice? That is known as a state of flow. Getting into a creative flow has similar effects on the brain as meditation in that it reduces stress, lowers blood pressure and produces dopamine – a natural antidepressant.

“That’s great!”, you’re thinking, “but how does this change my life?” When you flex your creativity muscles, you expose yourself to new experiences and this openness allows your mind to wander and seek out more new avenues to explore.

Think you aren’t the creative type? Check out these secret ways of highly creative people and get your creative juices flowing!

Argue For Change

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein.

If you wish to welcome change into your life, you’re going to need to do something different. This sounds obvious, but knowing what to change is where many of us get stuck, hoping that if we keep chugging along, things will improve on their own.

We also fear the work that goes into change, and with unknown challenges on the horizon, it can seem more comfortable to stay where we are. What helps many of my clients is making a pro and con list. For example, if you’re unhappy with how often your family orders in during the week, but haven’t been able to get yourself to cook more often, your list could look like this:

Changing behavior: Pro’s – eat healthier, save money, learn a new skill, could be a family activity, less guilt Con’s – need to learn more cooking skills, more planning

By forcing yourself to think of how staying the same or how to change your life will impact you, you’re likely to discover what you thought was scary, is really going to be worth it in the end.

The more often you change behaviors and routines, the more readily you jump at change. Start small and learn how you approach and accept changes in your life. Here are 8 small lifestyle changes to consider!

The post How to Change Your Life: 10 Ways To Live Your Best Life appeared first on Everyday Power.

[shinyobjectreviews]

I didn’t like Infinity War

Infinity War was much more flawed than I expected it to be. I definitely see how people could have fallen in love with it, there were some bold choices made and some strong performances, but I had so much trouble staying engaged in it that I didn't enjoy the film. I'll leave the spoilers for after the break, but let's just say I have a lot to say. I based my format roughly off of Moviebob’s “Really that Bad” because I like the way he admits some things are minor and some are not.

Stuff I liked

Everything looked nice. I really liked the design of most of the aliens, especially horn lady and squidward. They were well designed and well animated. I liked most of the planets and spaceships, even if they were a little derivative sometimes. This doesn’t mean much when the richest company in the world is funding the biggest movie in the world based on a series with years of design behind it.

The infinity stones did stuff. I was happy that the infinity stones kept their specific abilities, mostly. It wasn’t just “collect all the mcguffins,” they each retained their abilities, mostly. The set up from the previous movies actually payed off in this respect. I’ll give them a pass for ignoring the soul stone, which would be a little tough to pull off, and the mind stone, which was just what the last one.

Thanos was amazing. I loved Thanos as a character. He’s one of the best villains in movies I have ever seen. He had a clear goal (kill half the universe) with a clear and personal motive (finite resources on his planet) and a clear pathway to that goal (the stones). Every decision he made and every word he spoke came from that very clear background, which made all of it carry weight. He had a very clear goal that the heroes had to get in the way of, so the tension coming from him was real. The audience knew what would happen if he succeeded, so they were engaged, and they knew what he needed to do that, so they were interested in the decisions. There’s a reason he’s the main character of this film, to the point of being the protagonist.

Random ending stuff. I liked seeing Thanos get home, sit down, and smile. I like hoe they clearly show the gauntlet was cracked, meaning he spent his one shot. I liked the choice for silent credits, and the title turning to ash. I liked them saying Thanos will return to emphasize both that while his mission is over his story isn’t, and that he was in fact the main character.

Minor Stuff that bugged me

Tony got nanites. This was something that bugged me in Black Panther, too. Nanites are a sci-fi writers crutch to explain why someone can do ridiculous things that look cool but easy. The trouble is that it makes it very hard to understand exactly what Tony can do and know whether or not he is in danger. At one point, he turns his arm into a scary laser cannon, and later he turns it into a knife. Was there a reason he chose a knife instead of a gun? Is it just a knife or was it something else? The Iron Man franchise had previously put a lot of effort into showing exactly what his suits are capable of, and putting enough limitations on him that you can be worried about his safety. But when his suit can turn into anything with telepathic influence it’s hard to be concerned.

The tone was inconsistent. A lot of people bug Marvel about this, especially in Guardians 2 and Ragnorok, their tendency to have a nice moment then immidiatley cut it with a joke. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. This film had some of that, but this time I noticed it within characters. Thor was simultaneously the saddened, desperate survivor and the boisterous, comical warrior. A lot of people liked the quiet moment he had with rocket, but to me it just felt so incredibly awkward. He lists off the people he lost, then chuckles, then rocket makes a sarcastic remark. It made me cringe.

Thanos tortured someone to get information from someone else... three times. First, he threatens Thor until Loki relents and gives him the cube. Then, later, he threatens Nebula until Gamora give him the location of the soul stone. Then again he threatens Tony until Strange gives him the time stone. It plays out exactly the same way each time. Each person swears they won’t give anything up, lets him interrogate twice, then gives up. It is repetitive and lazy writing. The very first time he did it I didn’t like it: it’s a super old cliche and an especially heinous one when you’re preventing the death of half the universe by letting your brother/sister/friend die.

Thor missed. Thor hit Thanos really hard with a weapon they had set up the whole movie as being able to kill Thanos, and he misses simply because he didn’t aim for a kill shot or lopping off an arm. I get that it’s just supposed to up the tragedy, making it even sadder that they lost when they were so close, but it wasn’t from not trying hard enough, or being unlucky, or being outsmarted, it was just because Thor was an idiot. A similar thing happened with Star-lord, but that was a little more forgivable since it was well set up and played well with the characters.

They break an infinity stone. Why can an ancient stone of limitless power from the big bang even be shattered, much less by someone who literally got their powers from the stone itself, and why does breaking this stone not result in anything other than a big yellow puff?

Thanos’s character is different from his previous appearances. His actions in the previous avengers films and in Guardains seems odd in retrospect. He literally gives away one of his infinity stones, despite in this movie being, in this movie, completely dedicated to finding them. He argues with Ronan in Guardians, but in this movie he’s calm with everyone. Granted, I like the new Thanos, but to everyone who says “they’ve been setting up Thanos for 10 years,” well, they’ve been setting up a different character. This one just has the same name, same daughter, and about half the attitude.

Bigger Issues

The characters were interchangeable. Marvel is wise enough to know only some of their characters will end up being popular. Spider-man shows up because he’s popular, but does’t do anything that any other hero couldn’t have done there. Tony goes to space, but if he had been ant-man or falcon instead, nothing would have been different. Thor had a Thor-specific plot (with Rocket for some reason), Gamora and Nebula had things only they can do, and arguably Scarlet witch and Vision, but everyone else was just generic fighter. Even Steve Rogers was nothing more than “a guy who knows another guy.” Wakanda served the exact same function as Sokovia in Avengers 2, it was just that Wakanda was popular. Tony never acted like an engineer, Hulk never acted like someone scared of their emotions, falcon was never loyal, spider-man unlearned his lesson from the first movie, the Guardians... well, they’re whole bit is that they’re weirdos in their own movies, so they didn’t seem that out of place. Still, it lessons the fun of throwing everyone into a movie together if they aren’t really doing anything that they need to be themselves to do. Everyone was there, but no one really needed to be.

Nobody does anything. I don’t mean this in the broader sense. I know that “the villain wins” sometimes makes it feel like the heroes didn’t get anything done, but usually you can have them get minor wins along the way, or build character, or get most of the way but fail in the end. Thor is the only one who gets a story like this: he must find or create a weapon that can kill Thanos. This involves going to a specific place, doing a specific thing, almost dying, but still coming out on top. Everyone else in the movie, though, has very unclear goals. They know they have to defeat Thanos, but that’s it. Tony and crew just follow a guy into space and end up on a planet where they plan to... do something? Fight Thanos, I guess? They don’t really have a plan, and the fight they do end up having is just a bunch of random punches and kicks. The whole fight at Wakanda is just a fight to save literally one guy but they act like its this huge war. The only character who makes meaningful choices or has actual growth is the main villain.

I stopped caring about death. The first character to die in the film is Heimdall, one of my favorites, but it’s sort of brushed away so I don’t really feel it. The next character to die is Loki, possibly the single most popular character in the Marvel universe. He dies graphically on-screen. It’s sad, but something about it lacks weight. This was not like agent Coulson dying in Avengers, or even like Quicksilver or Freya. This was like Captain Antilles dying at the beginning of Star Wars. It was a death to set up the villain and motivate the hero, which admittedly it did. But when the most popular character in your universe not to have a movie named after them dies in the first ten minutes, all the sudden death means nothing. People were so excited over the concept that anyone could die in this movie, but since none of the deaths were given time to grieve or even contemplate, they fell flat. I found myself detached from the characters. Since, as I pointed out above, all of the characters were interchangeable, I knew that anyone could die at any moment and not affect the overall story. In a film were major characters turn into minor characters, killing off a character always feels like killing off a minor character. I knew all these characters, cared about them in their movies, but in this movie none of them are doing anything so I don’t care. They all finished their arcs from their individual movies, they were complete characters, so killing them off just meant no more sequels. When the finger-snap happened, all I could think was “oh, there’s someone who’s contract ran out.”

Thanos was ridiculously overpowered. Thanos being a powerful and nigh-unstoppable force goes without saying. It’s a superhero team-up, of course you need someone powerful enough to require them teaming up. The issue is the word “nigh.” At the start of the film, he has the power stone. This is a good way to show how he’s strong enough to single-handedly take on the hulk and the asgardians. The power stone is also the vaguest of the infinity stones, so it’s a good one for him to start out with, because we can gauge its power level based on Thanos’s. Then, he gains the space stone, and gains the ability to teleport, which is actually a pretty clever way of allowing the villain to interact with multiple story arcs across space. Then, though, he gets the reality stone, and everything goes out the window. In a movie where the main plot is to kill the bad guy, it’s hard to think the heroes are going to be successful when he literally dies in front of us and comes back to life. The reality stone, as its name implies, alters reality. When Thanos comes back after dying, I at first assume this is some sort of illusion, and Gamora killed a fake Thanos. But then, Thanos turns Drax and Mantis into cubes and paper, meaning that it does have an effect on the real world. But maybe that, too, is an illusion, I think, in one of those “if you think you’re dead you’ll act dead sort of ways. But then he turns bullets into bubbles, and I lose all hope that Thanos can be defeated. From that point on, any times Thanos is losing, it feels forced and arbitrary, and anytime he’s winning it feels obvious and unpreventable. This would be fine if it happened at the end of the movie. The times stone is treated like this in the film: the moment that all hopes is lost. But instead, it happens less than halfway into the movie.

The action was poorly done. Constant shaky cam, the rabid aliens were poorly animated, characters doing their one thing they do then leaving, it was awful. The fight in Scotland is alright thanks to its minimal members and unique power sets. the fights with squidward were fine because his powers were clear and his limits were realistic. All the rest, though were a slog. The fight on Titan where everyone just kind of jumped around and somehow knew exactly how Strange would teleport them was boring to watch, especially when the color palette was “orange and brown planet, villain wearing gold, two heroes wearing red and gold, one hero wearing maroon and gold, and Mantis.” and somehow every punch and shot made him flinch an equal amount no matter who was doing it or how. It then transitions into them trying to get the gauntlet off, which makes sense but was hard to realize during the action and there was no reason they couldn’t have mentioned that at some point as a way to conceivably defeat Thanos. The fight in Wakanda was a mess, with the rabid aliens moving so much you had no idea what they were doing, and the directors apparently not even caring, since all they want to do is show off everyone using their powers. They even lampshade it and point out that the creatures were literally sent in just to die, and even kill themselves.

That’s probably everything.

I don’t know, I just wanted to get this in writing. I tried to stay professional but this is about 50/50 personal opinion and professional opinion. If you disagree with any of this, that would make sense. It was a lot harder to get some of this in writing than I thought. I’ll end it with a little list of stuff that I feel like poeple would bring up, but that I didn’t feel the need to.

Stuff I didn’t like or dislike. I thought the finger-snap ending was a cool way to write people out of the universe but I didn’t think it was as adventurous as people make it out to be. There weren’t any specific deaths that I was particualrly happy or sad about, even spider-man’s. As I was watching the film I was really upset about how they treated Gamora from a feminist perspetive, but it was a little helped byt the fact that they did the exact same thing to vision. I thought the performances were fine. I thought the score was fine. The fact that Thanos probably could have used the gauntlet to double the amount of resources rather than halve the amount of people didn’t really bother me much because the movie was written well around that fact.

Thank you for reading my rant. Have a good one.