You guys may or may not know I'm currently working on a game. The overall theme of the game is fantasy, however when showing my game to someone there was a comment that raised my eyebrow, one of the characters in the game is a Witch and her card features her with a bow & arrow constructed purely out of energy (ala Psylocke), he stated that it would make more sense for the Elf character to be the archer instead of her, and thus begins this blog with the simple question, Why?
 |
| Silly, Ugo Witches can't be archers! |
I'm not new to fantasy but apparently, I am. I never played D&D as a kid and despite watching the animated "Lord Of The Rings" movies and later the live action ones, I was never 100% involved in the fandom as I was in say "Star Wars" for example. But whenever writing I always functioned based off of the notion that anything can be whatever the hell I want it to be give or take a few key details. For examples vampires are one of the fantasy races that have been retooled by nearly everyone, everyone's vampires are different enough but the common thread between them is that they need blood to survive, when that simple principle is violated you're no longer dealing with vampires. But since when did Elves become exclusively archers? Did I miss a memo that stated that Elves were always archers? I mean aside from the pointy ears there isn't much left to Elves.
 |
| Oh because Legolas is an archer all Elves are archers... |
Or maybe I'm missing something. Furthermore, one of the characters in the game happens to be a Warlock, that's not his Class that's his Race and another individual commented "Since when is Warlock a race?", my question is "Since when could it not be?". I don't think there's a rule anywhere that states Witches and Warlocks cannot be Races, after all "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" established that Witches were their own race. But again, since when do fantasy creatures have rules that aren't rooted in their being? Just like the example of Vampires, without the need to consume blood as the core defining characteristic, it's not a vampire but bows and arrows don't define Elves and the only thing that define witches (at least to my knowledge) is their reliance on magic and that they're women (warlock are male). Anyways, if you'd like to know more just head on over to Blue Mist The Card Game, my exclusive Blog for all Blue Mist content. Moving on...
At the moment I'm watching "Dragonball Super", however I stopped watching The Dubs (I'll buy those on blu-ray in the future) I'm currently watching the subs (since they've already concluded the entire series) anyways, since the passing of the original voice actress of Bulma (and maybe I'm outta bounds for saying this) but there seems to be some elitism on the part of those who watch the subs as opposed to the dubs. Maybe this is all done in jest and I'm taking this way too seriously but I find this annoying enough to comment on. The reason why those (such as myself) prefer the dubs as opposed to the subs isn't entirely because we're opposed to reading but simply because we speak English. I doubt Japanese people would prefer to watch American cartoons with subtitles assuming they weren't dubbed in Japanese. There's nothing wrong or unfaithful in watching a dub. Every country (if they import media) dubs it for their audience to make said media more accessible to their audience. I'll say for personal experience that I'm waiting for the dubs of "My Hero Academia" because I can watch it while taking care of my son and if I take my eyes off the screen I won't miss a key piece of dialogue.
Maybe something may get lost in translation, but nothing critical to the extent that we're suddenly watching 2 different shows. Furthermore for someone who doesn't speak nor readily understand Japanese, the subs won't carry as much weight with me because I'm not hearing what I'm supposed to be hearing in my native tongue I'm just reading it, and hearing it and reading it are two different experiences. Also (and maybe this is me personally) but hearing one thing and reading another can be off putting at times simply because the words you're reading you read them in your voice not the voice of the character (because again, unless you speak or understand Japanese you're not going to get it in that character's voice. So forgive me if I'm an uncultured swine for preferring dubs, but rest assured when Midoriya calls down for a "Detroit Smash!" I'm gonna hear that in English!
Moving right along, work on the web comic is slow again because of baby but I'm currently working on figuring out a template for a comic page. And since we're on the topic of comics...oh boy, this one is a doozy. Some of you may or may not know that TNT is currently working on a live action Teen Titans show titled "Titans", however since Cyborg has already been co-oped by "Justice League" (Only God knows why) this line up will only feature Robin, Beastboy, Raven & Starfire. Like most people I watched "Teen Titans" the animated series on The WB and read the comic books (post Crisis) and loved them and while the prospect of a live action "Teen Titans" is awesome, admittedly it's NOT a good idea. I knew something wicked this way would come when it was announced and when the cast was revealed my fears became known but it wasn't until I saw that production stills that I realized just how truly horrible things would get. Behold.
For those of you wondering, this isn't a picture of a hooker from GTA that suddenly wandered out of her virtual crack den and made it into real life, this is unfortunately Starfire...yeah. Listen, this is no shade at Anna Diop, I'm sure she's a fine actress and a lovely person...but I knew this was a bad casting choice the very second it was announced. I'm not gonna explain how I knew but I had a feeling that this is what we'd end up with...a very low budget looking version of the Teen Titans. And don't get me wrong, I've eaten crow before when it came to Apocalypse in "X-Men: Apocalypse". Granted I'd have preferred him to look like his traditional self (and be taller than everyone for that matter) but for what we got, I wasn't mad at it. THIS however is UNFORGIVABLE! I get that Apocalypse might be a difficult character to realize in live action but Starfire?!!
All Starfire has to be is orange and hot, that's it and neither are present in this (dare I even say it) "interpretation" of the character (again, no shade at Anna Diop, I'm sure she's a lovely person). Despite the massive failure with Starfire the other Titans (except Robin...because all Robin is a white boy, admittedly a very in shape white boy) don't look that good either. Raven just looks like a chick with dyed hair, she doesn't have her chakra and she looks sadly, very basic. Beastboy just looks like a guy with Green hair, however Beastboy is ALL GREEN, furthermore and this is just a side note and really wouldn't matter considering Beastboy is all green but Beastboy is LITERALLY blonde haired and blue eyed and here he's being played by someone who's Asian (or at least half Asian). I wouldn't be calling attention to that fact if it weren't for the case that he's not completely green. I can't help but think that the casting directors wanted to show everyone how "diverse" and "inclusive" they are and they really can't do that without actually showing the real skin tones of the cast members (hence why Starfire is Black instead of orange and Beastboy is White instead of green).
This hurts my soul but I can't say I'm surprised, and again I expected as much. I was more than willing to give them a chance and I'm still holding on to the idea that these are unfinished stills and the special effects and skintones will be added later...but WOW this is bad. Real bad. Cosplayers on a budget that doesn't rival that of a Hollywood production studio are able to produce more accurate representations of the characters. Check out these amazing cosplayers:
Given her words, I'm more inclined to believe that what was presented isn't going to be the final product, however I am SO not holding out hope because despite her comments it doesn't explain the wig and why she's not orange and why her lips are blue. And for those who think they might use CGI to create her orange skin tone, the same effect can be achieved with body paint and look just as amazing as it would without relying on digital means. Sadly, I think Starfire will end up being a "Black" Tamaranian (and considering Starfire was a slave at one point...this just kinda writes it's self...in this day and age sadly...) and they'll squeeze some racial story line with her character. But I digress, I hope this gets cancelled and they do it right.
I'm currently watching "Assassination Classroom", I shouldn't say currently because I only saw 2 episodes but I won't share any of my thoughts on it until I actually make a solid assessment of the series. Moving right along;
As mentioned hither too, I'm currently working on a card game, however all product has halted until further notice due to the fact that unfortunately I'll have to suck it up and find an artist...because apparently: I don't have a solid understanding of basic drawing and any consideration for my artwork is simply trolling. Against my better judgement I went ahead (like a complete dumb ass) and posted some art on Board Game Geek just to see what people thought...should have known what they'd think already but again, I'm a dumbass. The response I got was this:
Now assuming from this lead in you'd have assumed that I had drawn something completely lulz worthy, something so bad that it couldn't be taken seriously and could only be considered trolling, allow me to direct you to the picture in question:
Holy sh*t, right!! My goodness, did a 2nd grader draw this sh*t? This is just 100% absolutely awful. Not a single thing redeemable about it. So here's my currently problem boys & girls and to be completely fair it's not a problem, more like a personal problem. This character was a character I just drew on a whim because I really liked Delia's (from "Mortal Kombat: Armageddon") look, I liked Ezio's look from "Assassin's Creed" and I really liked The Sister Of Fate from "Lost Legacy":
 |
| Obvious influences are obvious |
That being said, I'm starting to realize that doing the art for "Blue Mist" might be entirely outside of my grasp (more like is completely out of my grasp) due to my EXTREME limitations in my artistic abilities (and my "dubious understanding of human anatomy"...whatever). Here's the personal problem, "Blue Mist" maybe a little too personal of a project for me to allow someone else to take the reigns on the art aspect of it. Admission time, I'm one massive hell of a control freak and I mean a control freak to the extent that I'd probably give Hitchcock & Kubrick a run for their money, and the idea of having someone else draw my characters...just typing it now utterly makes my skin crawl.
So I'm considering re-tooling the characters of "Blue Mist" completely so that it's not so personal and therefore am able to yield control because after which I'll give less of a sh*t about the new characters than I do the old ones. Yes, I am anal about these things and I'm not ashamed of it. The next problem is an actual problem and that is hiring an artist cost money...money I don't have and considering the full breadth of work that needs to be done to make "Blue Mist" a reality that's money I'm probably never going to have. Now I know what you're all thinking? Kickstarter, right? WRONG! Kickstarter only funds finished products not products getting started therefore I'd have to raise the money to pay for art and that does not a good Kickstarter campaign make.
Well, I have to end on a negative note but there's nothing else I want to cover in this article. Long story short, I thought I was getting better at my artwork but apparently not, apparently my artwork is OBVIOUS trolling. Oh well, here's a GIF of my current mood, either one, take your pick, both work.
No comments:
Post a Comment