Stop Rolling Your Eyes and Try It-More Than Human

                 Does anyone remember these three little badasses?

                If you grew up in the 90's, the answer is undoubtedly yes. Don't try and deny it! Even us boys loved it, though we never admitted it at the time. It was funny, lovable, and composed of at least 70% win. The problem lies in the realm of fanfiction. Many fandoms have one type of fanfic that for one reason or another takes up a very large percentage of the fanfiction. In the case of the PPG, it is one that goes, "Powerpuffs are teenagers now. They go to highschool. They hook up with Rowdyruff Boys." And, like 90-95% of all fanfiction, it sucks. It's misspelled, and if it isn't it's just droll, soulless, and cliche. It was so common, the creators made a passing joke about it in an episode!

             However, one day a good writer, called SBJ looked at all the bad fanfics using this premise and said, "Why can't I use this premise to write a good story?" And thus More Than Human  was born. This story is hilarious, touching, sad, awesome, and fucked-up. It is not a fast, easy relationship upgrade. Each chapter is longer than most fanfics, and it still isn't done yet. It is slow, steady, and amazing. Easily one of the best fanworks I've ever seen. Read here at your leisure. Until next time, laters.

Sore Fingers-The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

                     I am a huge Zelda nerd. I've been playing the series since I was old enough to hold a controller, and it remains up there as one of my favorite game series. I've been anticipating this game for years, and let me tell you now, it did not disappoint. The only debate I really have with myself now is whether it's my 2nd or 1st favorite of the series. Yeah, it's that good.

                    The story is very well-done, capturing the simplicity of Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time with the character development and depth of Twilight Princess. The characters are pretty great. This is easily one of my favorite Link's (You can make his dialogue choices sound like Sokka!), and his relationship with Zelda is the best so far in the series. Zelda herself is pretty cool. The villains are chilling, badass, and hilarious. My favorite character has to be Groose, who goes through more development than almost any other Zelda character.

                  I love the art style they chose here. Most people like to talk about how it combined the styles of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, but it is more than that. It is an actual artistic style, called Impressionism. (Thank you Art 1.) It was chosen, in my opinion, because it perfectly suits the Wii and its graphical limitations. It looks good without having to be super-realistic, which I like.

                I absolutely love the gameplay here. For the heights it attempts to grasp, it comes close enough for me to be more than satisfied. It fucks up little enough, and when it does it is easily corrected. The level design is incredible. My roommate who didn't enjoy Twilight Princess (I know, what the fuck right?) because it was too easy will be unable to make the same complaint here. This game is hard as balls, but never unfairly so. There's a ton of content here too. I only did the storyline stuff, and it still took be 34 hours to beat.

                The orchestral soundtrack, which comes with the game, is amazing. It is probably the best Zelda score, and easily ranks among the greatest in gaming history for me. Overall, this game met my expectations, it exceeded them by a mile. By the end, I was left sad, but satisfied that such an amazing adventure can be played again any day. And that no matter how much time may go by, there will always be a Link, a Zelda, and an enemy they fight. And it will be great.

Why I Hate Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire

           Yeah, I feel the need to type out and vent my pent up rage at this. When I was a kid, the first game system I ever got was a Game Boy Color, and the first game Pokemon Gold Version. It remains today in my Top 5 Favorite Video Games, and has had a huge impact on my tastes. Soon after I got Pokemon Yellow. This allowed me to see the transition from Generation I to II more clearly. It also amplified my love of Gold. Seriously, if you ask me Gold is in no way inferior to Red or Blue, and in every way it's superior. It is by and large what I consider the perfect sequel to any game. So, as you can imagine, I was excited as hell for the next generation. My expectations were huge, as I was expecting the same kind of progression I'd experienced in the previous generation switch. What I received sorely disappointed me, and to this day remains one of my least favorite sequels in any series. A lot of people I know are puzzled by this, so I'll explain.

         Gold expanded on Red in every way it could. It had twice as many maps, 100 new Pokemon, 16 gyms, two new types, a phone system, a day/night system, a week system, and it ended with you facing off with the protagonist from the previous game. Ruby expanded on Gold in literally two ways: instead of 100 new pokemon, it had 135, you could grow berries, and it added double battles. Unlike it's predecessor though, Ruby also removed a huge amount of content. One region, 8 gyms, no new types, no phone system, no day/night system (THE CLOCK DOES NOT COUNT!), no week system, no apricorns, Team Rocket was replaced by mentally unsound environmentalists, and all characters from the previous games were gone. It was a huge step down from Gold. The only thing I can complement is the graphics, which are quite pretty. But to me, graphics are the least important of a games components. I still have had this idea in my head for years, though I'm unsure whether it would be a ROM hack or a fresh game, due to the amount of stuff involved. It would be what I was expecting for this new generation: 3 regions, 24 gyms, 3 new types, fighting Red and Gold, the return of Giovanni, double the level cap, and a calender/holiday system in tandem with the system in Gold. It would be a lot, I know, but it's what I imagined growing up as a kid.

          What do you think of the changeover from Generation II to III? Respond with your thoughts in the comments below.

Cracking a Goddamned Book-Time Spiral

                Hell yeah! I love Magic: The Gathering, and have been a fan since 7th Grade. (To those in the know, I am a total Timmy Vorthos.) I love the storylines, the gameplay is fun, and smashing things with my Darksteel Colossus is so much fun. This is the first Magic novel I've read in a while, and I love it. Time Spiral is one of my favorite blocks in the series, so I was pretty excited to read this.

              For those not in the know, Magic is all about the Multiverse, the infinite number of planes of existence. The planes have only one constant: 1 out of every 1,000,000 sapient beings is born with the Spark. When a being with the Spark is incredibly stressed, sad, or angry their Spark ignites, and becomes a Planeswalker. A Planeswalker is a super powerful magic user, with the ability to planeswalk between the planes as simply as if they were walking to the next room. The center of the multiverse is a plane called Dominaria, which is featured in far more sets than any other plane.

           The Planeswalker Teferi is thousands of years old, and is mostly a kind and joking guy. One day he goes to his eternally young friend Jhoira, to tell her something important and serious. Their home plane of Dominaria is in danger. You see, over the course of the series, it has had three Apocalypses. (Apocali?) This has caused huge tears in the fabric of space and time, and will  tear Dominaria and the Multiverse apart.

          I love the case here. Teferi is made of epic win, and Venser is awesome. Radha is a bitch, but hilarious and Jhoira is pretty cool too. To writing is pretty good, it definitely helps build a mental picture of the landscape. The dialogue is damn good. I really enjoyed the story, and can't wait to tear through the next book. Overall, a great read for fantasy fans, especially those already enjoying the card game.

Retrospective-Avatar: the Airbender Book 1, Chapter 2-The Avatar Returns

Summing it up: Take the previous episode, remove a lot of comedy, place with way more action, Sokka and Iroh are more in character, much better. Second verse, same as the first.

Retrospective-Avatar: the Airbender Book 1, Chapter 1-The Boy in the Iceberg

          This is a very good beginning to a great series. It shows off a lot of the things the show would become famous for excelling at. The voice acting rocks, the backgrounds and character designs are awesome, it's able to switch between funny and series fast while kicking ass at both, the soundtrack is made of win, and an interesting story. The problem lies in three main areas. They hadn't gotten the handle on how to spend the budget right yet, with some comedy scenes being just as fluid as an action scene, and action scenes that feel choppy. They also hadn't nailed down the humor yet, with several gross jokes that don't show up later at all. Lastly, several characters weren't quite nailed down yet. Sokka is far more serious and agressive than usual, and while some of Iroh's trademark quirkiness is there, there's also a scene that seems to set him up as a villain, which the original plot would have done. Still, it got me and a huge amount of others hooked right from the start. Laters.

No real post today

It's been a good birthday. No real present but free pizza. And friendship. Lots of that.