Order VS Chaos: Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat isn't a series known for its intelligence that's for sure. Yes there's a pretty in depth well written story with strong characters in it but nothing particularly amazing. But that doesn't stop it from at least having stuff worth looking into.
In the 6th game in the series Mortal Kombat Deception our new protagonist has to visit 6 realms to find 6 rare treasures the Kamidogu. Two of those realms he visits are Seido the realm of Order and the Chaosrealm.

Obviously the two realms have their contrasts. Seido seems pretty peaceful for the most part and it is. The Seidan guard are diligent and devoted and no one seems to complain. At first at least..

The longer you spend in Seido the more apparent that it isn't perfect. The guards are so devoted to their work that even missing a curfew that you didn't know existed can put you in jail for several years. And then there's the riots.

Turns out the citizens of Seido aren't made of sturdy stuff mentally. All it takes is mentioning the word chaos and the town descends into.... well chaos. It's a certain point worth making, walls that keep out danger keep out knowledge and the ability to grow.

The realm of Chaos is a little different, to be perfectly honest other than being a little creepy it seems pretty normal. And then you talk to the inhabitants, it's otherworldly gibberish (actually the series sound creator John Vogel talking backwards). That's just the start. If you attack the locals they will thank you for it!

One thing the people worship is water they hold it sacred because of its shapelessness and that it takes no form, characteristics considered by Chaosrealmers to be chaotic. It has no form and can't be controlled. It actually makes sense when you think about it.

The two realms form an interesting contrast but even as the polar opposites of one another they are very similar. Despite the strict laws Seido still struggles to control its crime levels, the two realms have an egalitarian view of life as in Seido title means nothing if you break the law and in the Chaosrealm titles go against the very nature of the realm.
Isn't it funny when the two realms don't get along but have some skin deep similarities?

Order VS Chaos: Shin Megami Tensei

Order and Chaos. Two concepts that everyone knows and understands. We have to balance these two in order to have a peaceful society that's just common sense. But what if such a world vanishes, destroyed by nuclear weapons and that the people who remain try to carve a new way of living out of all the madness? What if they fought each other over their ideals to the death? What if the powers that be are very much real and very much aware but choose to do nothing?

That's the world of Shin Megami Tensei. A world where chaos and order stand on opposing sides and embody what they stand for to an absurd degree. And you're the kid with some weapons and a portable computer that can summon demons.

Did I forget to mention the demons? Well there's demons. Some are horrifying and some are adorable either way you're gonna need their help. Our main character can't fight demons with magic so he needs to recruit demons to help him out. This is the tricky part, everyone but you has picked a side.
If you stumble into a town on the verge of death and low on supplies you better pray you didn't walk into an opposing town. If you're lucky you'll be paying a lot for your expenses. But more likely is that you'll die walking around.

The point is choices mean everything. They shape your demon choices, they shape the fate of your friends and it even determines the ending.

If you decide to play the game devoted solely to order then God and his angels appear and unify the world under his might. Sounds like a happy ending right? Well you'd be wrong. God takes away the free will of everybody and starts a kingdom under his dictatorship.
Yeah since this is a Japanese game there's a lot less concern about depicting God in a negative light.
God isn't depicted as you'd expect he's a selfish and petty tyrant with nothing but contempt for the concept of free will. And he certainly doesn't look human.

But without order there is chaos, chaos is represented by Lucifer who's agenda is a lot harder to get. He makes it quite clear he hates his former master and is doing everything he can out of spite for him but at the same time he says that he'll never abandon humanity. If you go for the chaos ending then seems a little better everyone can think for themselves at least. But Lucifer makes it clear that some races just aren't cut out for survival in a world of chaos. The strong will live and rule and the weak will simply die.

So in short we've got two sides both ruled by otherworldly beings who's moral compass is pretty shattered. So our hero has another choice, fight back against both and lead the world into a new future free of God and Lucifer. Whether he does is of course entirely up to the player.
And that's the big question of the game: No one else knows or cares about the real problems in front of them so what can you do to fix things? And in that what makes you qualified to fight for the future apart from the fact you're the only person who can talk to demons consistently?

If you go for the path of neutrality things are a lot better than they could be. I won't say anymore because this is the canon ending and it teaches a pretty important lesson about humanity and what it can do if allowed to be by itself. And the risks it takes if left unchecked.

Shin Megami Tensei is 22 years old at this point and when it first came out it was consisted ground a breaking for its treatment of story, themes and interpretations of other cultures mythology it was something special. And them every one and their dog started copying it and doing it better.

The game was truly revolutionary in its treatment of the post-apocalypse, demons, morality and the like... and everybody in Japan proceeded to rip them right the hell off, from Neon Genesis Evangelion to Super Robot Wars to Soul Eater (the latter being a kind of Lighter and Softer Deconstructive Parody, that's how far we've come). Seeing what made the original game so unique can be somewhat harder in this day and age. The gameplay also suffers from this in a huge way - in 1992 the first-person dungeon crawling was relatively unique in execution. For anyone used to post-Quake 3D navigation or PS2-era and beyond user interfaces, though, the game will want to make you tear your eyes out in frustration over how clunky it is. The mapping feature itself requires you to open two menus alone.

If you want to experience the story that started it all it's actually available on iPhones in English for the first time ever. That 22 year wait paid off.

Pulp Fiction

I am an absolute mark for the works of Quentin Tarantino. Well except for Death Proof but I'm willing to let that slide. 

Pulp Fiction is one of my favourite films if just because the dialogue in it is even funnier than Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Samuel L Jackson steals the show in literally every scene he's in. And I love him for it. 

The fact is Pulp Fiction isn't about any real structure, it's about a bunch of things that happen in a non continuity manner. But that adds to the appeal I guess, trying to piece together all these scenes how they actually happened in the universe of Pulp Fiction rather than how they happened onscreen.

Then again most people didn't see (and still don't I think) for its plot. They saw it for it's dialogue and that's just as good a reason as any to see it. 

There's the scene where Jackson goes on about Cheesburgers, the metric system, and how his girlfriend is a vegetarian and so he has to be too. And if you've seen the movie you're playing the scene in your head right now aren't you?

After that there's the scene where Tarantino shows up and gives off a speech I can't discuss thanks to the content of it so instead here's a link to it reenacted by Spongebob Squarepants. God I love the internet. You haven't seen Samuel L Jackson until you've seen him voicing Patrick Star.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iEdBeyXGZ94

The other scene that stands out is Christopher Walken's cameo. All of it. Walken has the unique the ability to make even the most awkward scenes way more awkward and make it go the whole way round to brilliant. Uma Thurman is also in this film for a tiny bit but somehow manages to get on the front cover. Guess Tarantino knows how to get money outta me. Or at least that's how it used to be. Then Kill Bill Volume 2 came out, then Super Ex Girlfriend. Then Motherhood. And then it all went downhill. What was I talking about? Oh right Uma Thurman's in this movie and she's really hot and this was before her career went south.

Christopher Walken, Samuel L Jackson, the pre Super Ex Girlfriend Uma Thurman (so before things went straight to hell), Bruce Willis and out of his coma John Travolta all make this gem work. Seriously Travolta's contribution to this movie was probably hilarious back then and even now to a lesser extent.

If it's good enough for a parody by the Simpsons during their peak it's good enough for everyone else. You probably know this movie even of you've never seen it and if you've never seen it THEN YOU NEED TO SEE IT!! And if you have already seen it well see it again.

The fact is Pulp Fiction is a great movie and basically proof of the great things to come. Still doesn't explain why there's non consensual sodomy but it's still better than Death Proof.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

"We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can."

This is just one of the many legendary quotes that stand out from this film. And it sums up the entire point of this film. Two men high on drugs pushing the laws and limits to such an extreme that they could get away with it (which they did).

Based on the real life adventure( i use that term very loosely) of Hunter S Thompson the father of gonzo journalism. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a one way path of destruction through sin city.
Raoul Duke and Dr.Gonzo are our two main leads and Duke serves as our narrator. Duke makes an interesting narrator because not only is he caught in such chaos and perfectly fine with it but he contributes a bit of that chaos too and even acknowledges how dangerous him and Gonzo are to everybody else.

It's a fascinating movie with a lot of varying ideas on its world and the drugs in it. The protagonists
are an incredibly destructive duo especially Gonzo who seems to consider murder the best and only
option. But at least they admit it.

Even the supposed "clean people" are corrupt, take a look at the drug convention during the second half of the movie. No one there has a clue how drugs actually work, they're naive morons in a position of power they shouldn't have. It says a lot about this films sense of morality when the two protagonists who are more or less insane know far more about everything than these idiots do.
Besides if you really wanna scare kids off the drugs this movie is pretty good at doing it. It may all be played for very bizarre laughs but the fact is this film can scare the crap out of anybody when really thinks about it.

And then there's the patrenal gland scene. The most inexplicably frightening thing ever put to screen since the tunnel from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. The bizarre transformation, Raoul's reaction and Gonzo's monologue make it one of the most intense scenes in film history.

To be perfectly honest I struggled to write this. It didn't really hit me how Herculean a task I had in front of me trying to write about this until I rewatched the movie. The simple truth is that there's just too much going on in this film to cover it all... So I'll only cover a few scenes.

The cafe scene near the end of the film. Never has a shift in tone been this jarring or sudden. It basically cements the truth that even if everything we've seen so far is played for very wacky laughs there are still victims in all this. Gonzo threatening to murder a woman is the moment when the character stops getting away with his madness and becomes a proper monster.

The scene somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. It's the scene most people know this film for be it Raoul Dukes memetic line "We can't stop here this is bat country!" or a seriously hilarious bit with future Spider-Man Tobey Maguire who has to play normal man to the two least normal humans in existence. My personal favourite is Gonzo's first bit of genius advice, telling Duke to take a hit of mescaline and drive really fast as it'll be a miracle if they make it to the hotel before the stuff kicks in.

Next there's the scene where Duke plays a tape in the hope of finding out what they did last night. It's hands down the funniest scene in the movie outside of the opening. A scattered senseless mess of consciousness that's impossible to understand and probably for the best. Actually describes the book it's based on too when you think about it.

There's also the scene after the audience meets Lucy played Christina Ricci. Gonzo seems to have picked her up at some point but Duke knows that having her along will cause trouble and proceeds to list off a long list of impossible for me to mention atrocities that they will bring upon her in their madness if she sticks around. It's the most backwards way of showing that Duke is both smarter and slightly less evil than Gonzo even if it's more so the two of them of don't go to jail rather than for her sake.

Finally there's the last scene before the credits role. Unlike the rest of the film where it's either terrifying or hilarious this scene is about the changes America had gone through for Duke as a person and people like him.

The so called Silent Majority was back in power. Men like the real life Thompson's mortal enemy Richard Nixon had the country the way they wanted it. Suddenly men like Raoul a Duke aren't acceptable. They're the enemy to a traditional America.

You can see it constantly throughout the film that Duke and Gonzo don't meet society's standards. It's easy to brush this off as them just being weird beyond weird but the fact is if Duke's flashback is anything to go by he was one of many and it was men like Nixon who were the flawed men.
So now Raoul Duke is a fragment of history, but he's still walking and breathing like he isn't. Now he's just a creature too detached from the reality around him to recover. Of course then again why would he want to?

I had to rewrite this a bunch of times because I always felt this wasn't good enough. The fact is that much like needing to be there to appreciate the world Thompson lived in you need to see the film to really even attempt to understand what's going on.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Hardin and Zephiel: Fallen Heroes

Hardin and Zephiel: Fallen Heroes

Fire Emblem is a turn based strategy game in which you control a small group of various soldiers to face off against a far larger army. It's all about survival and strategy. Every move counts as if someone dies they stay dead.

These games plots are very formulaic, large army attacks small city or nation, small nation fights back only to reveal there's something bigger operating behind the scenes. Whilst these games do both plot and gameplay well it has its archetypes. You can see the archetypes coming from a mile away but that doesn't stop it being intriguing.

The best example is the Hardin Archetype. Named after Hardin,a cavalier from the first game, the Hardin as a noble man with a strong sense of Justice who through circumstances beyond their control fall into a corruption and become a great threat later on.

Hardin was a prince who fought alongside the heroes and was in love with Princess Nyna who did not love him back. However the two married at the end of the first game anyway.


Hardin expressing envy over Nyna handing the hero Marth the Fire Emblem. Subtle foreshadowing to Hardin's weaker side.


Hardin's start of darkness. A combination of grief and heartbreak turning him into a tyrant.

When Hardin found out the truth he was heartbroken and distraught, he locked himself away and had no contact with anyone except for a single merchant who gave him a jewel. Suddenly Hardin was changed, gone was the just ruler and in his place was a man the people called "The Dark Emperor". Hardin was supposed to heal the wounds of the last war not start another.


Hardin's transformation into a villain note the corpse like skin and red eyes.

Eventually Hardin was slain and the truth was revealed, the merchant was a sorcerer named Gharnef and the jewel was a Darksphere which corrupted Hardins soul. The sphere destroyed Hardin and lead to another terrible war. As he lay dying he asked for forgiveness and and cursed his weakness dying a tragic figure. With Hardins demise the continent was now ruled by King Marth the hero of the game who also ruled Altaneia.

In regards to how Hardin fits the theme of dislocation the fact is that Hardin archetypes are expected to bring about great peace normally end up making things worse. They're expected to be great rulers but something beyond their control goes wrong making them a tragic figure.
But none are more tragic than Prince Zephiel.

Zephiel is the main antagonist of the sixth Fire Emblem game, Binding Blade, he's misanthropic, ruthless and unbelievably cruel to his enemies but the game keeps making hints that he wasn't always like this.


Zephiel as he appears in Fire Emblem 6: Binding Blade

When Blazing Sword the seventh game was revealed to be a prequel we learn the truth and suddenly everything he is about to commit is more tragic than it really should be.
Zephiel appears as a youngster and the game makes he's an excellent swordsman, loved by the people and a compassionate person in General. The exact opposite of his petty tyrant of a father Desmond.
Zephiel wants nothing but his fathers love but he will never receive it. He finally realises this when Desmond tries to kill him.... Again.


Zephiel in the ending of Fire Emblem 7: Blazing Sword

Zephiel snaps and along with his retainer Murdock fakes his death. When Desmond looks over his sons casket Zephiel emerges from inside and kills him.
Zephiel in his madness initiates a war with the other nations killing countless innocents and inevitably destroying the continent when he dies. The exact opposite of what he was expected to do.

The Hardin archetype is about hope and the inevitable chaos that follows when that hope is lost. When a potential hero falls from grace and the destruction that follows. The knowledge that there was a chance to stop this only making things worse.

The Embodiment of Dislocation: SCP 106 "The Old Man"

For my end of year film I have decided to make a 5 minute film based on the SCP Foundation. For those unaware the SCP Foundation is a wiki dedicated to the recordings of supernatural entities. It's a pretty entertaining site and pretty much all the ideas on there are unique and certainly scary. For example there's a blue key that can open any door in the universe, a coffee machine that can make any liquid in the universe and beyond, an indestructible lizard with a great hatred of humanity and a living drawing of a woman.

But the SCP that stands out to me most of all is SCP-106 also known as "The Old Man". SCP-106 is a literal living embodiment of dislocation, the rules of reality mean nothing to him, he can move through matter by making the world corrode, he can't be killed or even hurt just stalled and he always comes back. To put it simply he is an immortal, implacable nightmare brought to life. To make him even scarier it's impossible to say what he looks like the best the site can manage is an artist interpretation(see below) and there's a file on the site that implies that the SCP had a blast during the second world war and was simply forgotten due to the atrocities committed.


(SCP-106 Mid Emergence)



 (SCP-106 when he was known as Corporal Lawrence)

His ability to be anything and nothing does a lot of favours to me as for filming purposes SCP-106 doesn't need to look like a unholy abomination. He just needs to have the air of one. This means he could appear in his humanoid form and still be just as scary, he might not even appear at all just make it known that he's there. Making the audience fear something that can be anywhere at anytime and pull you into a world of its own design till it's done toying with you right? Right?