Hello, blog. It's been a while.

So... It's snowing, It's awesome. Not that it'll stay, although I wish it would.

I love snow. I realized why today. It's because everything goes so quiet. It's the same reason why I'm such a night owl - night is quiet. In snow, everything i muted. And I suppose it also gives winter a sort of mystical aura.

So, I started planning for Christmas. I know, not yet Thanksgiving. But I don't really celebrate thanksgiving. I usually just eat a token turkey leg or something. But Christmas this year will hopefully be at least a bit fun. Okay, it's always a bit fun. I've planned all the food already. Even calculated the cost (about 1800 kr/£161/$200, for a total of 2-3 people. But the food will last for a couple of days).

Also, N7-day happened. I love Mass Effect. I love BioWare Games. Lots of fun. And lots of news and stuff from N7-day. However, still no real game play, and no release date. Boo! We'll see at the game awards at December 1.

Holding me over to ME:A will be Final Fantasy XV. I've just been waiting for like 11 years. But I can be patient. Really liked Brotherhood, the anime they released, and liked Kingsglaive, it was pretty and action packed. While Brotherhood is watchable for all anime fans, however, Kingsglaive.... is not. Not really. I think you really have to be a Final Fantasy fan, or even FFXV fan, to appreciate it.

I've decided to update this blog with all the Christmas-y stuff I (plan to) do on my Swedish blog. Pics and recipes and stuff. I count down to Christmas with pretty pictures. So here's today's pictures:

Laterz, ppl! I'm... burning chicken......

Top 5 kick-ass kids in my video game library.

I seem to have top lists on my brains. I'm working on 6 different favorite Disney song top lists, top Anime intros/outros that gets stuck in my head, a handful others... and these. The top Kick-Ass people in my video game library.

So here's the criteria for this list: The have to be kick-ass, and they have to be kids. Either officially under 16 or just slightly older, or, if they have no official age, childish enough to guess they're little kids. Deciding that Final Fantasy will get its own lists (or they would probably dominate) I opted to only look at the current generation games. Two honorable mentions, that got me a little ambivalent, as they are re-released for PS3 this year.


Honorable mention 1: Rikku from Final Fantasy X. At age 15, she is rather a peppy little kid with fun gadgets like bombs, she steals your stuff when you're not looking, and she has crazy pupils in her eyes.

Honorable mention 2: Sora, from Kingdom Hearts. Oh, how I long for the re-release of this. His age is not anywhere I could find, but I'd peg him for like, 12. Some people I know call him whiny, but I'd say he's not as whiny as people say. And, hey, he's fighting with a GIANT KEY! That alone gives him a couple of points.





Ok, so here's the actual list:



5: Allegretto from Eternal Sonata. His age is not clearly stated, that I know of, but he looks and acts young enough to be a kick-ass kid, with his tag-along would-be baby brother Beat.












4: Yuki from Enchanted Arms. Slightly antagonistic would-be villain turned ally. I'm not sure of her age, either. I want to say it's stated in-game that she is 14, but this might be something I dreamed up. I also have the feeling it's stated in the booklet, but I can't seem to find it. Anywho, little girl in a cowboy hat and with a pair of guns? Can't go wrong.








3: Lymle from Star Ocean: The Last Hope. 15 year-old looking like 10, she has some serious magic in her hands. She summons a FIRE BEAST for heavens sake. She's a bit apologetic, and her English voice is.... weird .... but, hey. FIRE BEAST!












2: Hope from Final Fantasy XIII. Yes, I know. Everyone hates him. He's a whiny kid. But he has a story arch set apart from the other main characters. He starts out a scared, whiny 14-year-old kid who falls on his ass at every other turn, and he ends up a cool, collected, strong healer. I take Hopes healing over Vanille's any day. And he grows up.... rather fine.... for the next game.







1: Cooke and Mack from Lost Odyssey  I have no idea how old Cooke or Mack are, but they are cool. One of the things that make them so cool is that they are a team. If they ever set out on their own, they'd probably make it fine, once they grow a couple of inches. Mack can really dole it out if need arises, and Cooke is great with the magic.

Countdown to Christmas: 14 days left

I wish I could draw. I can't. So I mess around with pictures in Photoshop, instead. While I was playing around, the FF Crews decided to say Merry Christmas!

Another day....

I put in a list of my favorite male Final Fantasy characters a while back, and now, it's time for the females. But before I do, let me just comment on something I read the other day. It concerns Death Note.

Concerning Death Note: Both L and Light have ANOREXIA! I'm not kidding, here. According to the OFFICIAL How-to-read guide, Light is 179 cm tall and weigh in at 54 kg (that's 5'8" and 119 lb) and L is 179 cm tall and weigh in at 50 kg. That gives Light a Body Mass Index of 16.9 and L 15.6. Now BMI is a blunt instrument on an individual level, generally it says very little about a persons health. But for a realistic assessment of Light's health at that weight would be that he should probably be in a wheel chair. And L.... well... he should probably not get out of bed... there's a risk even that he wont be able to lift his head, as it would be to heavy...



Well, that aside, let's have a look on them girls, shall we? Again, just as with the guys, I only cover 7 to 13-2, skipping out on 1-6, Dirge of Cerberus and the MMO's. Actually, I'll skip out on Crisis Core, too, because that would be cheating....

Final Fantasy 7: Tifa. What a kick-ass girl. Pretty, doesn't mind getting her hands dirty, can handle herself in a fight, can handle Cloud and his emo outbreaks. I know, I know, most people would probably pick Aerith, but something about her just.... rubs me the wrong way, I guess...








Final Fantasy 7 AC: Marlene! I know, she's a kid. But she is such a kick-ass kid. When she threw that Materia at Loz.... I laughed and I groaned at the same time, because my first thought was; Marlene, now you're in trouble. And girl, was I right.... and when she tries to hide under Vincent's torn cape... so sweet, so innocent, so trusting and so strong.

Final Fantasy 8: Selphie. A spunky young woman who balances out the Emo Boy (a.k.a Squall) quite well. Carefree without being careless. Gives for a few fun moments, and man, she can wield nunchaku. Which is hard. I've tried. Although, I must admit... Her hair looks a bit weird.









Final Fantasy 9: Eiko. Another of the spunky Final Fantasy girls. And she tries sooo haaaard. To be happy, to be independent. Sweet, kinda innocent, a nice change of pace.






Final Fantasy 10: How can one NOT say Rikku? This list seems full with spunk at this rate. But maybe that's the point. Side-kick girls needs to be spunky to level out all the emo boys.... Rikku talks crazy in the beginning, but that's because she's Al Bhed.

Paine

Final Fantasy X-2: Paine! Paine is basically a female version of Squall and Vincent combined, with the emo and the clothing... she's less emo, though. She is another kick-ass lady, and all the outfits they made for her, the dress spheres, look great. Paine is one of those Final Fantasy characters I wouldn't mind taking out on a date.








Final Fantasy 12: Penelo. More spunk. But I like her, she can get angry and sad and she always tries to keep Vaan  in check, though she never really succeeds.










Final Fantasy 13: FANG! I mean, HELL, what a woman. Enough said!

Well, there you are. My Favourite Female Final Fantasy Characters.

(The pictures belong to their respective creators, I take no credit for them)

PAX update.... kinda late... very small...

Looking back at PAX Prime, I know one thing for sure.... I should have been there. Looking at PAX from a distance, it's not all that fun. Must be a blast to be there, though. Lots of cos-play, lots of events and tournaments and stuff... but not all that much news. I will keep an eye at some games that showed up, even if it wasn't their first appearance. Games I will (keep) looking forward to, that showed up at PAX Prime: Pikmin 3 (I looooved Pikmin), Okami HD, Ni no Kuni; Wrath of the White Witch, (looks really fun), New Super Mario Bros. U (who doesn't like Mario?), Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (Final Fantasy meets LoZ: Majoras Mask, what can go wrong?), Guardians of Middle Earth (this is that kind of games that both entices me and scares me at the same time, we'll see what happens with it), Epic Mickey: Power of Two (Still haven't played Epic Mickey, I have to buy it when I can afford it), DMC: Devil May Cry (I love Dante.....), and Assassin's Creed 3 (this I've saved money for).

All in all, PAX is not E3, and you should probably be there to fully enjoy it. Next up: Tokyo Game Show on September 20th. Hopefully, we get some FFvXIII news, as they promised. I think the big news is that it's been pushed to the next-gen consoles. If we get no news on it I'm giving up, and keep writing yaoi fanfic on it... News on Lightning Returns is a given, or I will wonder what the hell they are doing at the Square Enix HQ...

Counting Down to PAX Prime....

Nerdy Yaoi Game Girl peeked out earlier this week, when she realised it's time for PAX prime...

Not that I expect any yaoi games (this year either) but rather more source material for my very own fan fiction. I hope for more gameplay footage of Assassin's Creed 3, Lost Planet 3, DmC: Devil May Cry, Okami (which I have and love, but cant play as my PS2 is shot and my Wii has 1st gen controller.... besides, want to see it in HD), Fable the Journey, and that game that blew me away at this years E3, but I can't, for the love of a God I don't even belive in, remember its title. Yes, Im quirky like that.

Also at PAX Prime, BioWare will show up, but if there will be any game news from them, I don't know. But my biggest frustration in not living in Seattle is that Square Enix will put on a big show over their 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy. Just think about this for a moment.... 25 years that game series has existed... that's almost as long as me. That's just as long as my ototo. And yeah.... I confess..... FF nerd....

I've always wanted to go to a gaming convention, but they're kinda scarce here. There is one on November, I think, maybe I'll go. This year's Science Fiction convention, though, is booked and payed for (or at least, marked in my calendar and saved for) as I've missed it so many times, and the last 3 times, I was supposed to go with Onee-chan, but..... didn't happen.....

Why is it one lives somewhere where nothing happens?


I was thinking about doing a collage of all the emo boys in Final Fantasy, but... there's just so may of them, I got a short-out in my brain. My own avatar, Vincent Valentine, is such an emo. And my first Final Fantasy crush! YAY me.... Cloud is really emo, but I have dubbed Squall from Final Fantasy 8 THE emo of Final Fantasy. I ran around that game for like 50 hours when I was  kid with that fricking emo. (and yes, I spelled that word wrong on purpose.) When it comes to Final Fantasy characters, I tend to "fall in love" with side characters, or even sidekick villains. Jut because, here's a list, Final Fantasy 1-6 not covered, just because I'm lazy.... and 11 and 14 because they are MMO's and.. i don't really do that. And Final Fantasy 7 Dirge of Cerberus, because that would be cheating....

Final Fantasy 7: Vincent. Any day. Probably the coolest guy EVER to sleep in a coffin.... I can't dub him the most emo guy to ever sleep in a coffin, because i think Louis already nicked that prize.









Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core: Ok, I have a huuuuge soft spot for Zack, and Genesis.... But a kind-of kind Sephiroth, just touches my heart. It's basically the Sephiroth out of my Fanfiction, which totally messes with both timeline and character relations, ad sometimes aren't even set in the Final Fantasy universe.









Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children: Yazoo. He's just so deliciously crazy. He almost seems happy to be crazy, like Alex in A Clockwork Orange.





Final Fantasy 8: Irvine. Upbeat like Yazoo, but not as crazy. I almost went with Laguna, but I have a soft spot for the sharp-shooter in the cowboy hat.

Final Fantasy 9: I can't go off main characters here: Kuja. My god, he's villain-y. And vain. And he probably has an eating disorder.... I mean, just look at those hips....











Final Fantasy X: Auron. I know, he's old. Maybe I have issues. But I cant help to love that guy, all cool and suave... and just look at that stare... he totally doesn't like anyone....





Final Fantasy X-2: Nooj. Maaaybe because he's a little mini Auron.... Otherwise, I'm partial to Paine, but, let's take the girls some other day.











Final Fantasy 12: Balthier. The leading man.... He's so goddamn arrogant and suave and that VOICE! I have a thing for voices. Please, Gideon, never stop with the voice acting...






Final Fantasy 13: Cid Raines. Oh, the drama, oh, the tragedy, oh the yaoi fanfiction..... probably the hottest Cid in any Final Fantasy game. Was there a Cid in Final Fantasy 13-2? I don't remember....







Final fantasy 13-2: Hope! OMFG, Hope you grew to be a fine young man. Once, you were a little kid with trouble up over your ears and a very embarrassing speech in the Pulse Arch, but now.... you sure you're the same Hope I once knew?










Anyway, there they are. My favorite Final Fantasy guys. I should do a list of girls and actually rank my favorite villains, but not today.....

So, PAX Prime this weekend, and next after that Tokyo Game Show on September 20th. Ok, so, time to win that jackpot that's been staring me in the face for 5 years, so i can afford to go to Japan...

(Pictures belong to the respective artists, i take no credit for them)

Let's go to the movies......

I was looking through my movie lists today, and realized that I really have to do something about them. I have a LOT of movies in my lists, and hardly any ratings. and the ratings i have is WAY out of whack. Looking in my Fantasy movie list, I saw i gave Final Fantasy Advent Children a 9/10. I don't know if that is deserving. Now, to be honest, I saw both versions in both English and Japanese, and the English version SUCK! But then I knew that it would, because i have never seen a good Japanese to English dub. (Exception: Howl's moving castle, but that's just because i love Christian Bales voice..... when he's not growling) And in the US, if you want to see it in Japanese, you're out of luck. Not that it doesn't exist, but that if you don't know Japanese all you get is DUBTITLES! Dubtitles is when they take the dub, put it on screen for you to read and pretend that it is a subtitles. There are A LOT of things they say in Japanese that they don't translate correctly, so you have NO IDEA what the hell is going on. For example they translate titles into names. For example, just in the beginning, a young woman says "sempai, hurry" (how the hell do you translate "sempai" into English anyway?) and the translation for the dubtitles goes: "Reno, hurry". It messes the flow up for me when I see things like that. Now, my own Japanese isn't great, not even good, but that's just lame. Even I hear that she says Sempai and not Reno. And look at that, we're only 3 minutes and 33 seconds into the Complete version. This is fun! Wonder what more we can find! Nah, not doing that today. Anywho.

FFAC is probably not a film that would hold up on its own. I cant tell, because I dealt with BC CC and DC as well as FF7, so I know where they are, where they come form and so forth. (And yes, those are the REAL acronyms for the games; Before Crisis, Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus) FFACComplete miiight be able to stand alone, as it has more screentime and develops Cloud a little more. Oh, those names! Cloud... No, not Curaudo..... Cloud.... What is it with the english speaking people and wanting to NOT translate Japanese. Calling Cloud Curaudo or, for that matter, Death Note Desu nôto, is, in my humble opinion, DISRESPECTFUL! Clouds name is Cloud even if you can't pronounce it! And a Death Note is a Death Note... So, btw, if you dont find an anime on the big great database, try sounding it out and write what it sounds like i Japanese and not what it actually is named..... Blue Exorcist took me an hour to find.....

Where was i...? Oh, yes.... FFACComplete. This is a fan service orgasm, that's for sure. I'm not really supposed to be reviewing it, at least not today. Let me just say that if you're a fan of the franchise or just of reaaaally good 3d animation, take a look. I love the bike scenes..... and the fighting scenes.

As I said, i gave this a nine, but I'll push it down a notch. As a movie, it has problems standing on it's own. Or maaaybe i should give it a ten, just for Sephiroth. And as my own avatar is Vincent..... *Final Fantasy Fan Girl Mode Activated*



On to my Cartoon TVseries list, I find that I DON'T HAVE A SINGLE RATING! What's wrong with me, am I too busy, or......? Now, I separated Cartoons, meaning mostly Disney toons, and animé, or this list would have been HUGE. One exception; The Moomin animé from 1990. I think the reason it ended up among the "Cartoons" instead of the "Animé" is simply that it was aired on Swedish and Finish television when i was a kid and there was a total of 4 tv channels in sweden. Ok, not strictly true, if you had a satellite disc you had like a gazillion. but no one in my neighborhood had that. So when i was i kid we had 2 channels public service + Finnish YLE and, a bit later Swedish TV4. Ranting again..... *deep breath*. So Moomin was actually an animé, and i don't think ANYONE is aware of this. Simply because we never thought of it as kids, or rather, weren't aware that such a concept existed. The general understanding in Sweden was either it's 2d animation, or it's live action. That was all knowledge of movie making we had. Exception., of course, the movie buffs. Now, I've always loved Moomin, I grew up with the books and the animé and that scary Christmas Calendar. Not scary for any other reason than it was live action, big people in big costumes and for some reason it scared the sh!t out of me. Maybe because they had to make the people wear big costumes as well... I mean, if humans have to wear human costumes, something is just wrong. Anywho, one thing I don't like about the cartoon is that in Japan it's 1 SEASON LONGER! What happened, guys? Why didn't you dub that last season and air it in Sweden? Well, too late now, and I have still to find it in Japanese. Giving this series a score is kinda hard, and almost unfair. I haven't seen the whole series, partly because of that last season, partly because i haven't seen all episodes that actually aired. And i don't want to buy the Swedish DVD releases, because they're totally out of order. you know, it's the kind of release where they throw a few episodes on a DVD that are not cohesive and one of the episodes are actually a two-parter, but only the last part is on the DVD..... or worse, the FIRST.... and its like episode 1 29 37 and 40 or something... I hate it when they do that. And they will never ever ever release a whole season in a box, because then they wouldn't make any money or something. RCP sounds like a good idea on this point....


Ok, third and last for today, or this will drag on forever, my animé TV-series list..... And the first thing i see is: Vanpaja naito.... gah, it sounds like a cartoon about some scary circus clowns. Scary pretty like the jigsaw puzzle i have waiting for me, Misty Circus Carousell. No, the animé, and the manga it's based on is called VAMPIRE KNIGHT! See, much cooler, you get an idea what it is about, it doesn't sound like a two year old translated it. Moving on... I notice that this list has no ratings either. I could rate Vampire knight, but.... I think I want to see it again before I do. So I don't mix it up with other vampire things I've been watching. And ANYONE saying the word TWILIGHT out loud gets shot by Zero. There! Looking down this list, I realize there are no yaoi on it, but it turns out i'm just forgetful. I have a YAOI LIST. Yay me. Wonder how long it took me to get all that on a list. Crosschecking, most of the titles on the yaoi list miiiight have been able to go on the animé list, as the titles i apparently found was rather tame, on the shounen-ai end of the yaoi scale, but still yaoi. I don't really know what else to say about my animé list, mainly because there were a lot of titles i haven't finished watching. I mean, ok, i got sailor moon, i got Vampire Knight and Black Butler and Death Note and hack.//SIGN, but I'm watching a bunch of others, so it's hard to keep things apart sometimes in my messy brain.

Ok, as usual a long-ass rant about things no one knows, and now i'm tired. I'll go through three more lists in a week....


(Pictures belong to the respective artists, i take no credit for them)