11 Of The Dwarves' Actors From "The Hobbit" (taken At An Advanced Screening Of The Movie)

11 of the dwarves' actors from "The Hobbit" (taken at an advanced screening of the movie)

State Of Mind: "Final Fantasy XII"

People who know me know that I make no secret that this might be my favorite in the "Final Fantasy" series of games. However, this seems to be among the most divisive entries for some reason. I'd like to examine why I love it when other hate it.

"Final Fantasy XII" follows the story of a rebellion attempting to put the proper princess, a young woman named Ashe, back into power during a major war between two large countries. There's a lot more to the story than that, including magical crystals (when aren't there magical crystals?), a war against the gods, and several plot twists and reveals. I never quite understood the story. It starts out simply enough, with the story being told from the perspective of street rat Vaan, who lives in the country in between the two warring ones. However, it quickly becomes tangled, as many more characters are introduced and plot elements begin piling up. You find out that this was never really Vaan's story, the bad guy isn't actually the bad guy (this actually happens several times), the war has more motives than originally thought, and something about the gods seeing the future and controlling minds. It all becomes really hard to follow, especially on a first play through.

In addition to the muddled story, the characters are also pretty forgettable. After X did such a great job of creating colorful and interesting characters, it was disappointing to see XII take a step backward in that regard. None of the characters really have any real personalities. They are all pretty much just serious, strong, goal-oriented blank slates that aren't given any defining characteristics apart from whatever goal it is that they are trying to achieve. There are two exceptions, though they are on opposite ends of the spectrum: Penelo, Vaan's childhoos friend, and Balthier, a sky pirate. Penelo, I can only assume, was supposed to be the perky young girl archetype, a role previously filled be characters like Yuffie In VII and Rikku in X. However, to match the game's atmopshere, her "perkiness" is severely toned down, so it ends up just coming off as a couple of random quips and stupid questions throughout the game. To make matters worse, she has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the game. She is there for no other reason than to give you a sixth party member. It's even worse than the also superfluous Vaan, since he at least has the excuse of avenging his soldier brother. (The original lead character was supposed to be a soldier named Basch, who, while still a major character and party member, had the focus taken away from him when it was thought that a more relatable protagonist was needed.) Penelo is, by far, my least favorite character in the game, both for her "personality" and her complete irrelevance to the plot. On the other hand, there's Balthier. In a game with so few good characters, Balthier is so memorable that it almost makes up for the general lameness of the rest of the party. He is an arrogant, but secretly caring, sky pirate who insists that he is "the leading man" of this story. He's a funny, compelling, well-designed character with an interesting backstory. Plus, in a story where half of the party is along for the ride for no adequately explained reason, he is actually pretty deeply intertwined with the matters at hand (for reasons both obvious and secret). In addition to his countless comedic scenes, he also gets some good tearjerker scenes and some show-stealing moments of heroic badassery. He is easily one of my favorite "Final Fantasy" characters of all time.

So, why do I love the "Final Fantasy" with the confusing story and forgettable characters (Balthier aside)? It's all about the world and the gameplay for me. Ivalice is enormous. You can spend all day just adventuring to all of the corners of the world and still probably miss a ton of stuff. Every corner is teeming with life, both friendly and malicious. There is a well-defined government, environment, social system, and mythos. There are tons of places to go and things to see. You can go somewhere a hundred times, and there's still a chance that you haven't seen everything that there is to see there. I spent over 100 hours on this game, and I still wasn't nearly done with everything it had to offer. Ivalice is a textbook example of building a complete and vivid world.

I may be alone in this boat, but I also love the battle system. I was wary at first, since this was the first "Final Fantasy" I had played without a clear turn-based system. I also feel as though other people hate it because it's so far removed from any previous battle system that the series has used (except maybe XI, which I never played). It definitely took some getting used to, but I ended up finding the new MMORPG-like system very deep and interesting. I loved being able to run around, see enemies on the field, and kill them as they appeared. It helped add to the world that they were trying to build, and it made it feel slightly more real when battles weren't taking place in some random dimension apparently reserved only for stabbing things in the face. Granted, I've heard some people say the opposite, saying that running away wasn't as effective as it would be in reality and that things could hit you when you were obviously far outside of their attack range. I guess those were all just covered by willing suspension of disbelief for me, that and the understanding that that was necessary in order to create a more balanced and challenging battle system. By the end of the game, I loved just running through earlier areas and killing things in one hit, racking up tons of LP as I went. One surefire way of gauging my enjoyment of an RPG is by how much I enjoy grinding in it. By that standard, XII gets a huge thumbs up from me.

So, there you have it. That's why I love one of the most divisive and detested games in the "Final Fantasy" oeuvre. Mind you, I sometimes go back and forth between this, X, and VI, but this one ends up on top more often than not. I love the world, the hunts, the Balthier, and the battle system enough to vastly outweigh any negative thoughts I may have toward this game. So, go forth, and happy hunting!

Favorite TV Series: "Futurama"

This is my absolute favorite TV show of all time. While I will admit that there may be shows out there that are better written or more refined, this show is just perfect to me. I first discovered this show during its time on Adult Swim. On a side note, I love Adult Swim. Anyway, I first saw the episode "The Sting", and, while the randomness and general instability of the episode did freak me out a bit, I was totally hooked. While I was bummed that the series had already been cancelled, I made it my mission to watch every single episode that had been made. That goal was accomplished fairly quickly considering how obsessed I was, and the last episode I watched was the actual last episode of the series, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings". While I do really like the way that they ended the series with that episode, the fact that the series was over still made me kind of upset. Needless to say, I was unspeakably happy when they brought this series back. I thought "Bender's Big Score" was great. The other three movies, on the other hand, were a mixed bag. I thought the weakest was "Bender's Game". The plot was convoluted and didn't make a whole lot of sense. That's not to say it was bad (even the worst episodes of "Futurama" are better than good episodes of other shows), it just wasn't my favorite. After being brought back, I personally think the series is just as good as it's ever been. It took a few episodes to get back in the groove, but I really do like the new episodes. The only difference is that these do not have the nostalgic value that the old ones do. My favorite thing about this show, besides the smart and witty writing, is the characters. Zoidberg and Fry are my personal favorites (though I do concede that episodes centered around Zoidberg tend to be below average). Another thing that I love about this show is that it has actually formed its own mythology. It has a consistent history and universe that it inhabits. While the episodes are largely...episodic, there are almost constant references back and forward to other adventures that the Planet Express crew has been on. I absolutely love everything about this show. I hope this time it stays on for as long as it deserves (which might just be forever). 

The End...

Hey, everyone who follows this blog. I just wanted to thank the few of you who followed me consistently, threw some asks at me, and enjoyed my ramblings. I'm posting this to say that I got an internship writing reviews for a website called The Trendy Spoon. Because of that, my reviews and thought pieces here will probably be considerably less frequent, if not nonexistent. I won't take down the blog, just in case someone wanted to reread a review or something, but there probably won't be much new content. You are always welcome to continue asking me things and following me over at The Trendy Spoon. They're still my thoughts on things, just less rambly and formatted differently. Thanks again for your support. It was these articles that got me the job there in the first place!

State Of Mind: What Makes A Hipster?

For whatever reason (I can’t exactly pinpoint why), I’ve been very intrigued lately by the concept of the hipster. More to the point, I’ve been wondering what makes someone a hipster. Is it clothes? Taste in music/TV/movies? Personality? Lifestyle? I know that there are bits and pieces of all of those things that come into play, but I want to dig a bit deeper than that. I want to know exactly what divides a normal person with some odd and obscure tastes and tendencies and an out-and-out hipster.

(A note before we really dig in: I’ve been thinking about this in terms of me, so, if it comes across as me asking questions about myself, that’s probably why. I will use myself as an example for a lot of these arguments, just for the sake of having a real world example without having to implicate any of my friends, but I’ll try to keep it as hypothetical and objective as possible. Feel free to throw in your two cents with by inboxing me or reblogging this with some thoughts attached. For the record, though, I don’t consider myself a hipster.)

Now, the first thing that a lot of people think of when they think of a hipster is a sense of pretension. Hipsters tend to look down upon things that aren’t traditionally hipster as “too mainstream” and beneath them. What if someone liked very similar things and didn’t have that sense of pretension, though? For example, I love cult classic and so-bad-it’s-good movies and TV so much that I would consider myself something of a connoisseur in that regard. However, I would never look down upon someone just because they didn’t like a movie that I liked or because we don’t have the same tastes. Does that automatically exclude me from being a hipster?

Another important aspect to the hipster lifestyle is the aesthetic. Unneeded glasses, bright colors, ironic shirts, and various other fashion statements have all become staples of hipster closets, and antique, out-of-date possessions have become mainstays of hipster living spaces. It is said that this style developed from people appropriating things from other subcultures and using them for themselves. The end product is both a form of artistic and ironic expression. What if you do all of these things without a sense of ironic detachment, though? I’ve been wearing ridiculous T-shirts and bright, clashing colors just because I like the way that it looks. I’ve also been known to wear fake glasses simply because I’ve wanted to wear glasses since I was about 6-years-old. I also have records pinned to my bedroom wall, and I’ve been trying to find space for some old film reels, a foghorn-like speaker, an old music mixer, and a mini record player. I don’t have all of this stuff because I don’t like listening to the man or mainstream culture; it’s because I honestly think that it’s cool and interesting looking.

Last up (at least for the purposes of this thought piece) is the hipster personality and lifestyle. Like I said before, hipsters are known for their condescension and ironic detachment. This applies to their taste in music, movies, clothing, humor, etc. However, does enjoying irony automatically add points to someone’s hipster score? Irony is the source of almost all comedy. What kind of irony, then, is exclusive to hipsters? Does it have to be mean-spirited? Can a hipster enjoy some unironically? I always make extremely racist, misogynist, homophobic, and generally nihilistic jokes with my friends, but I always do it with a metaphorical winking eye and lack of any mean intentions. (This relates to my beliefs about political correctness, both in general and how it is filtered through comedy, but that’s a topic for another thought piece.) Where, then, does that type of well-intentioned ironic humor fall on the hipster humor spectrum? Is it less hipster for not being mean, or is it just as hipster because it’s irony pointed at social norms?

The lifestyle is probably what I have the least to say about, since it involves having money and being over 21 (neither of which apply to me). From what I understand, it involves being somewhat aimless after college and basically living in certain types of bars/restaurants/record stores and at concerts. While I can admit that my life after college will be somewhat aimless (simply because what I’m studying doesn’t really match up to what I really want to do with my life), I can’t say for sure until I get there, so I guess my stake in this article is over.

Reading it over now, I realize how much this whole thing comes off as me either really trying to prove my hipsterdom or trying way too hard to disprove it. You know what, though? So be it. I just really wanted to write something like this and get it off of my chest. Am I a hipster because I listen to some bands that no one has heard of? Because I dress weird? Because I like certain types of movies and TV? Because I like a retro aesthetic? Because I have an ironic sense of humor? I can’t say for sure, and everyone has a different opinion on what makes a hipster. I just know that, no matter what, I would never put someone else down for not liking the things that I do or lord my tastes and opinions over other people. Negativity begets negativity, and isn’t there enough of that in the world? And maybe my positivity and enthusiasm is the only thing keeping me from truly being a hipster. I don’t care. I’m going to do what I like because I like it, with or without a label.