Top 10 Series with Disappointing Endings

Okay, I fully realize how hard it is to really come up with a good story and especially a good series, and find a good way to end it.  I am not going to go on about the series that the endings were a little weak, but acceptable, like The Wire.  That show had a clever allusion in it’s ending that even though we don’t know what will happen to all the main characters, the idea was that everything just goes on, and you have to accept that.  That’s clever.  I’m also not going to get on series that have bittersweet endings, like Cowboy Bebop, because I like those.  I really have no problem with an ending that leaves a little bit of a sadder tone.  This post is about the ending that just showed no respect for what story they were telling, and the fans who enjoyed it.  That said, I hope you enjoy.  I had enjoyed these series, until the end…

10. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Now, I want to clarify that I get why the ending of this show was so bad.  The creators of the series ran out of money, so they cobbled together what they had and tried to create a pseudo-psychological ending that would somehow bring it all to a close.  And it failed, badly.  Not only was it the most boring ending that I have gotten to see, but it also was totally worthless.  Honestly, in this instance, they should have just cut their losses and ended the show where it was, because again, I would have understood.  This was just boring, and a waste of time.  Now there was a movie made later with what they had wanted the series to be, but I would have preferred the series not end, and for the film to then end it for me.  Still, it is low on the list because I get why it happened, I just don’t care for what they did with it.

9. Fullmetal Alchemist
Now, this series ending isn’t bad because of no closure, or even no character development.  It actually almost got everything right.  Edward came to peace with who he was, and who he had become.  Alphonse was ready to give up his life in order to finally do the right thing.  Winry was ready to love Edward.  Colonel Mustang got his revenge and finally stood up for what he believes in.  The Elrics’ father had filled in the rest of the story about the Homogulus and how they were created.  Everything was coming together just perfectly.  I was even actually very impressed when Al sacrificed his life to get Edward back and give him his body back.  I really would have been totally accepting of that ending.  It’s bittersweet, but that was kind of the point of the entire series – that the boys had lost something, but gained something as well.  Instead, they did something that just bugs me with the ending – leave it on a dismal note, deliberately setting up a film sequel.  I hate that so much.  You know, why did Edward end up in our world, anyway?  If they had had him sacrificing his limbs and Al’s memory, but staying in that world, I would have been okay.  Instead, it was just shoe-horning an ending to make room for a film.  Fail…

8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
This series was an example of something that REALLY gets under my skin – no closure.  There was no closure whatsoever.  Not only that, it didn’t feel like it was over.  Maybe that was Joss Whedon’s idea, showing that the fight never truly ends, but this was the series finale.  We wanted to feel like it was done.  You never find out what happens to any of the characters (save Spike, but that was in the other and much less good show, Angel), you don’t get any new perspective.  It just is like – whelp, that’s over with.  What?!  No, we cared about some of these characters (emphasis on SOME), where do they go after this?  In the end of House M.D., they showed brief clips of what happened to them, and that was fine.  Why couldn’t this show do the same?  A lot of people will claim the follow-up comics did that, or that we could fill in our own plot, but that is just justifying after the fact, and totally worthless.

7. Mass Effect
Angry Joe did a great video about all the problems that were wrong with this ending, which I’ll link to here, but I thought I would add my two-cents.  Like Angry Joe, I hate endings where a new character is introduced at the last second, and I hate endings that also disregared everything that the fans loved about the series.  People invested a lot of time into this series, and what we got for our money was just a complete cop-out in every sense of the word.  Fans of the series were burned by this ending.  Of course, there are some who think that it was okay, but honestly, when the developers told us that there were going to be all sorts of other endings, admit it, you felt like we deserved more for what they gave us.  Three endings, almost all the same.  Complete bulllshit.

6. The Sopranos
The end of this series has kind of become a running gag that will forever be a shame upon HBO.  Remember what I said about no closure, this series embodies that in the worst way possible.  It literally ends with a cut to black, right in mid-sentence.  You find out nothing about the characters, nothing about the family, and nothing about the people who were involved.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn’t give us much at the end, but it at least gave us an ending.  What the hell did this series do?  Just decided – okay, I’m done!  That’s another thing that REALLY gets under my skin – when you can tell that an author or creator was tired of the series and wanted it to be over, which was clearly the case with this ending.  What a joke.

5. Heroes
Talk about a series that went from A+ to F- in a second.  This series had a lot of potential, but quickly lost it.  The second season was a bore.  The third had a brief pick-up in effort and respect, but then the fourth ended with something else that totally annoys me – having a HUGE development right at the end and knowing that it will never be addressed.  Claire reveals her super-healing ability, effectively making public the existence of super-heroes.  That is something that could have had an entire show based around it, but instead, it just ends, with the makers of the show knowing that it will never be talked about again.  Ending like that just piss me off, and thankfully are a very rare thing.  Still, a pity that this series snuffed out so fast.  It had a lot of potential.

4. Star Wars
Now, let me make one thing clear – I am not talking about the films in numerical order.  Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi is a piece of cinematic mastery.  I am talking about them in production order.  This is actually about all three prequel movies.  These movies sucked, absolutely sucked.  Episode I: The Phantom Menace was pure garbage which completely forgot the previous and far-better trilogy.  The following two films were not only boring, but lacked all of the integrity of the other films.  The acting was beyond awful, the plot was boring, but the worst part is that it COMPLETELY forgot all of the canon established in the original films.  Obi-Wan wasn’t being trained by Yoda in the prequels.  He didn’t meet Anakin as a grown-up pilot in the prequels.  Huge posts have been made burning the reputation of these pieces of garbage to the ground, but they have most certainly earned a place on this list because the final ending was the more overdone and over-dramatic piece of cinema that I have ever seen.  Avoid at all costs!

3. Star Trek Voyager
Of all the series’s on this list that offered NO closure whatsoever, this one is the absolute worst.  We grew up with these characters.  We watched them struggle and fight and many die so that they could get home.  And what happens next?  Nothing.  It just stops.  You never find out what happened to anybody.  Why not?!  Why couldn’t we see Captain Janeway get promoted to Admiral, as you find out she was in the final Next Generation movie?  We wanted to see that, along with Lieutenant Kim getting to command his own ship, or see whatever becomes of Chakotay.  How about Seven of Nine?  Does she end up under the Federation’s microscope?  Does she become a Starfleet officer herself?  Doe she get an outfit that isn’t so ridiculous? (honestly, she looked better in uniform!  Did you see the episode where they had her in a normal Federation uniform?!) There were a million and one questions we wanted to know about what happens to these characters, and not one of them is answered.  It was like the people who made the show forgot why we watched it – to see them get home.  And part of seeing them get home is seeing where the go from there.  Instead, it just shows the ship getting back to Earth, then done.  Bullshit!

2. His Dark Materials
It’s ironic that The Amber Spyglass is one of my favorite books, yet I hate the ending so much.  It made me cry when I read it the first time.  Everything in this series was going right.  Will and Lyra were finally able to admit their love for each other.  They were going to be together.  Miss Coulter and Lord Asriel were dead, and the organization behind them was destroyed.  That was so perfect, and what did we get?  We get the two characters getting torn apart, with no chance of being able to see one-another again, and honestly, that’s all one needs to know!  That is all the bullshit right there.  No, book, you don’t tear apart the main characters and then shoe-in a reason for it.  It is heart-breaking for a kid’s book, and totally out of place, given how well everything was coming together at the end.

But as much as I have problems with all of those endings, as much as I can get annoyed, they are as nothing compared to my #1 pick.  Every time I see this it pisses me off.

1. Animorphs
Remember all the reasons I had for why endings piss me off?  This is an amalgamation of ALL of them.  For a children’s series, this was an amazing one.  The themes were incredibly mature, yet easy for a young audience to grasp.  The characters we all knew and we could understand their struggle.  Right up until the very last book, the conflict was amazing and the character depth was at a fever pitch.  Then the last book came, and spit in the face of everything that the series had done.
The first problem is that it was OBVIOUS that K.A. Applegate was tired of the series.  This book was so rushed that you could see she was just trying to get it out and be done with it.  When you make a series, you have an obligation to the people who have been loyal fans, to not just slack off and give them bullshit in the last act.  And that is exactly what this was.
The second problem is that this was written deliberately to avoid having to talk about one of the key conflicts which we all wanted to see how it would resolve – Rachel.  Rachel was arguably the most dynamic character, going from an adrenaline junkie to almost a sociopath, with a need to kill Yeerks and a definite enjoyment from it, to the detriment of almost all of her inter-personal relationships.  Even her own mother is scared by what she was becoming.  Everybody was eager to see how that situation would resolve itself by the end.  But what did we get?  They just killed her off.  And to make it worse, they then decided to rub our noses in it with The Ellimist Chronicles.  Fuck you!
The third problem is that for the surviving characters, there was no real closure.  You get bits and pieces of a closure, but never anything concrete.  It just kind of happens, and you have to accept it.  Sure, it did address some of the big issues, like Jake’s inner turmoil, and Tobias losing his humanity completely and just becoming a bird, but you NEVER see what happens to Ax.  Sure, you hear it being told to them, but we wanted to see it!  Cassie and Marco are glossed over.  The entire end feels like something that was just rushed out of the gate.
But the final problem, and the worst, is that it has a HUGE development that is never addressed right at the end.  Ax is in danger, and the group flies off to face some kind of unknown super-monster.  Okay.  But that’s it.  They are just flying off to go and fight.  What?!  What the fuck is that?!  We wanted to see an end, god-dammit!  I hate this book.  I hate it so fucking much, yet it is what I have to stomach.  I choose to think that the series had no ending, it’s that bad.  I’ll take the Evangelion route and just accept a complete lack of an ending over this crap.  Worthless piece of shit…

If you are going to make something, you have an obligation to see it through.  I guess that these creators didn’t get the memo, especially K.A. Applegate.

Until next time a quote,

“And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”  -Robert Frost

Peace out,

Maverick

Top Ten Most ANNOYING Female Leads

There have been a lot of good women who had done amazing things with film.  I am a guy, and even I am sometimes entranced by a female lead in a romantic film.  It’s happened.  I loved, and still love Chocolat.  Mostly because of the fact that chocolate and atheism wins over religious stupidity, but hey, there have been worse reasons to love something.  But, the fact is that where there is a really inspiration and really good female lead, there are some awful, and I mean god-awful female leads that just make you want to hang yourself!

Here is my list paying tribute, along with wishing death, for all the female leads who just annoyed the living shit out of me!  And hopefully most of all of you too!

10. Elizabeth Swann
Pirates of the Caribbean
Okay, this is a character who really served no purpose in these films.  In the third film, they tried to make her a kind of badass character, but after having been nothing more than a whiny damsel in distress for the first movie, and just fucking whiny in the second, it was too little, too late.  She brought nothing of any value to the story, and the fact is that she actually took away from the quality of the films.  In the first movie, she was just a romantic who had a kink for pirates.  In the second, she was a back-stabbing bitch, and come the third, not only was she not sorry for her actions, but she manipulates even more people!  She even cheats on her dream guy and then basically says, “I’m a cheating whore, marry me!”  And of course, the dumbass did, even though he saw her cheating on him.  I am not all the much of a fan of Keira Knightley.  She is boring, predictable, and really not good at showing any emotion that wasn’t just grading on your ears.  Here is a character who should have gone down with the ship.

9. Lisa Cuddy
House M.D.
Here is a character who was cast looking for one thing, and what they got was something else altogether.  Cuddy is supposed to be the inevitable love-interest of Greg House, the title character.  It was so obvious that she was going to get with him, but by the time they got there, we really just didn’t care.  She was annoying, really annoying.  Her voice was annoying, her pathetic attempts to look like she cared about what was going on was annoying, and most of what she did the entire series was bitch about pointless junk.  It got really nerve-grating after a while to listen to her whiny tone of voice ragging on House for things that we all knew he was going to do!  She was never all the interesting to watch, and she never left a lasting impression.  All in all, she was a dean of medicine who seemed to be a part of the wallpaper.

8. Irene Adler
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Now, this incarnation of this character in-particular was so unbelievably annoying.  I have never had any real love for Rachel McAdams.  In this movie, we all found out why.  Not only was she a disgrace to the character that she was meant to portray, but every word that came out of her mouth, along with the pathetic attempts to mess with people just left you feeling like somebody was scratching their nails on a chalkboard.  The character of Irene Adler is supposed to be cool, classy, sexy, smart.  The Adler in this movie sounded like a blonde bimbo who just happened to get lucky in her life.  Nothing about her character ever implied that she had a great deal of intelligence.  Had it not been for Watson saying that she had gotten the better of Holmes, I never would have believed that she would have.  She just seemed to be a whiny hussy who just bitched and got captured a lot.  A disgraceful performance of what is supposed to be a cool character.

7. Asuka Langley Soryu
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Here is another character that I get what they were trying to go for, but the end delivery was just ANNOYING!  She was supposed to play the really gung-ho pilot what was in love with herself, but all that narcissism was just a defense mechanism to hide some really serious self-esteem and mental issues.  She was also supposed to have a love-hate relationship with the main character, Shinji.  On the surface, that all sounds really good.  It all sounds like it would be kind of fun to watch.  But it is the delivery of this character that sinks that boat incredibly fast.  Both the original and the dubbed version are equally annoying.  She whines and bitches about everything.  By the time they finally do decide to develop her, you want to sew her whiny mouth shut and keep hoping that she is going to die.  They did make her compassion towards Shinji look believeable, but that was the only saving grace of a character who was supposed to bring some pretty substantial subjects to the table, and instead brought a prima donna attitude and no substance.

6. Elizabeth Bennet
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Another role where the delivery is not only a million times different than the source material, but it is also killed by the person playing it.  In the novel, Elizabeth is a smart, clever, witty, charming, but still kind of judgmental woman.  In the BBC miniseries, they captured this rather well.  However, in the film, she is as much of a whiny prima donna as Asuka is.  And the performance of Keira Knightley just makes what was supposed to be a character that we all saw as defying societal norms just seem like a whiny little bitch who should just get with the guy so we can all hear her stop talking.  I know people who just love this performance, but what is there to like about it?  Knightley is just so terrible!  She complains, bitches, never seems to do anything of merit, and never shows any sign of being very smart.  She is just another prima donna who we all want to strangle!

5. Relena Peacecraft
Gundam Wing
Here is a character who brought absolutely nothing to the table.  I mean, I guess that maybe she was supposed to be one of the main male lead’s love interest, but all of the interactions that are had with her hinting at there being an attraction are really just blown away by the fact that she is so annoying!  I compare it to Winry Rockbell in Fullmetal Alchemist.  She was a little annoying, but her attraction to Edward Elric was clear, and while they could have stood to develop it more, you got very strong indications that she cared about him, probably even was in love with him.  It added to the story.  Relena, on the other hand, isn’t a whiny prima donna, she is just pouty.  She is always crying about peace.  Peace this, and peace that.  It took away from the greater tragedies that were unfolding in the series when we had to go and listen to her talk about how great peace is, and how bad war is.  She never looks at the greater societal issues, or examines what gets us to fighting, just talks about how fighting never solves anything, which is bullshit.  She could have been erased from the show, and it wouldn’t have been much of a loss.  Peace never got her anywhere but in trouble, only to be another dumbass in distress.

4. Faye Valentine
Cowboy Bebop
Here is a character who I am actually a little torn about.  Granted, she is on this list because she REALLY annoys, but there were times when she actually brought something to the table, and she was kind of cool to watch sometimes.  But she was annoying.  From the moment she gets with the crew of the Bebop, she is a whiny prima donna who does nothing but rob them, then comes back to them later and basically gets not attacks or even having them angry at her.  The crew treats her like an annoying house guest, even when she steals from them, attacks them, vandalizes their property, cheats them out of money, and at one point tries to kill them.  The lack of aggressive response to her actions is just nerve grating, and after a while, you really start to wish some serious death upon her person.  Add to that the fact that she is hardly developed at all.  One could make the same argument about Ed, but she is a teenager.  Not a lot of development is needed, because she is young, and she played her role rather well.  With Faye, she was just an annoyance who helped with the plot every now and again.  I would have blown her brains out, but that’s just me.

3. Willow Rosenberg (early in the series)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Now, I think it is really important to point out that this character became a hell of a lot cooler later in the series, when she got some real power, and some real dilemmas.  But when it started, she was just the nerdy and annoying friend of the annoying title character.  Honestly, I was tempted to put Buffy on here, because she is really a pain in the ass, but the fact is that while Buffy was annoying, she actually served a purpose.  For the first three seasons (well, up until close to the end of the third), all Willow did was get in trouble, and get saved.  She had no skills, no talents, no real use for anything.  For that matter, neither did Xander, but he’s a guy, and we’re talking about the ladies.  You can bet that when I do the male equivalent, he will be on that list.  But for the most part, up until the fourth season, she just kind of got on my nerves.  This show kind of sucked until the third season, when it got a pretty badass villain, and it actually took itself serious.  Joss Whedon had a bad habit of making shows that are great on paper, but the delivery is crap.  He’s a good writer, but a lot of his shows suck.  Go figure.  And annoying characters like Willow didn’t help.  If you want to see the really good parts with her in it, watch when she is evil at the end of the sixth season.  I really wish that had gone more of somewhere, but oh well.

2. Rita Bennett
Dexter
I don’t think that anybody liked this character.  I think Julie Benz is a terrible actress.  She has butchered every single performance that she has ever done, and this one was the worst!  In this series, you get to see why she is such a terrible actress, and why this character is just so awful!  She is manipulative, a complete prima donna, whiny, bitchy, and whenever she doesn’t get her way, she treats everybody (including her own children), like shit.  I get the idea, that she was supposed to be Dexter’s connection with his decency, but he never seemed to particularly care, and the audience hated her.  The best moment in the show was the one where she died!  I remember all my friends and I cheering!  We started drunken song at the death of Rita.  She brought nothing of substance to the series, and the performance was just awful.  Love the show, hate the girl.  It is good that she died.  Ironically, every single aspect got better with her death, even her annoying kids!

And the number one leading lady who just annoying the living shit out of every single person is…

1. Bella Swan
Twilight
I’ve already covered the pathetic, whiny, spineless, and boring character from the books.  Here, I am going to focus on the character in the films.  There has never been in teenage cinema a character more selfish, dependent, uncaring, manipulative, narcissitic, pretentious, stupid, and whiny little bitch before!  The worst part about all of the horrible qualities of her character is that it wasn’t intentional.  They wanted Bella to represent any teenage girl.  But that isn’t what happened.  She’s the real vampire of this series.  She doesn’t have a single problem in the world, yet bitches about how tortured she is.  She gets a crush on a guy, and at 17 decides that she is in love and wants to marry him.  Yes, because we all know exactly what we are supposed to do at 17, right?  Wrong!  When the loser boyfriend Edward dumps her in order to save her, she then manipulates him by putting her life in danger, over and over, just so he’ll notice her.  Manipulative much, bitch?!  She jumps off a cliff to get his attention!  Not only that, but it is a horrible lesson to give to the dimwitted throng of teenage girls who admire this shit.
And when Jacob, a guy who actually seems to care about her and want to take care of her gets involved, she dumps him for the guy who treated her like shit, just so she could use him!  A war starts all because of her, and when all these people are fighting to protect her, she doesn’t care!  She doesn’t give a shit!  And when she finally pressures Edward into marrying her, she then fucks around with Jacob!  And this wasn’t the first time she cheated on her guy with him.  This girl is not only scum, she’s a slut!  What do girls like about her?  She isn’t a hero, she’s a villain.  And she is a horrible lesson to give to teenage girls about what a teen girl is supposed to be.  Mothers, tell your daughters to avoid these films, and the books too, at all costs.  They are fucking dumb!

Until next time, a quote,

“Alice. You’ve disappeared. Like everything else. Now who else can I talk to? I’m lost. When you left, and he left, you took everything with you. But the absence of him is everywhere I look. It’s like a huge hole has been punched through my chest. But In a way, I’m glad. The pain is the only reminder that he was real. That you all were.”  -Bella Swan

Peace out,

Maverick

Lucien’s Review: Black Butler

Don’t let the name of this show fool you.  This is not some racial pun or anything like that.  In fact, the name is rather strange, and probably the most likely explanation for it is the character that it references to’s dressing habits.  This show is probably one of the most genuinely disturbing shows that I have EVER seen in my life.  From the moment I saw the first episode, I knew that I was gazing into the minds of a group of people who are probably as genuinely disturbed as the world that is created.  That is why I am going to review this show, even though my original plan for today was to review one of the most fun games that I have ever played, LA Noire.  Instead, however, I would like to introduce you, to Black Butler. 

The plot of this show is so incredibly complex.  I will only talk about the premise, so you can go and learn the rest yourself.  It tells the story of a young man named Ciel Phantomhive.  He is the heir of his family’s corporation, and an Earl in England.  He is one of the Queen’s agents who looks into matters of the underworld, or of supernatural origin.  Two years before this show, Ciel was killed by an unknown group, as were his family.  In order to seek revenge, he sells his soul to a demon creature, which he later named Sebastian.  The two made a contract.  In return for serving Ciel as his butler, and top assistant, after Ciel has gotten revenge, his soul will be Sebastian’s.  Yes, it really is as dark as it suggests.  However, Sebastian serves absolutely, without hesitation, and will do whatever his master asks of him, provided it does not get in the way of his first duty- to protect his master’s life.  If Ciel dies before the contract is completed, he does not get his soul.  That’s the premise.  Ciel is on a mission of revenge, while keeping up his duties to the queen and running his family’s company.

This series takes place in Victorian England.  It takes on several issues of that time period, actually.  One of the cases that Ciel gets is the case of Jack the Ripper.  The social themes keep very well to that of the time period.  The role of nobility, the concept of a servant and master relationship, the realities of various social castes.  These issues are all handled quite well, as is usul with a series like this.  This was not cooked up one day and just run with.  The Japanese have this very good habit of conducting rather thorough research when they create a show.  All my favorites tackled the issues that they were talking about with very competant grace.  Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion tackled the ideals of isolation, moral degredation, chess concepts, and several other issues perfectly.  Neon Genesis Evangelion tackled their core ideas of the biblical apocalpyse very well, keeping with the story, while making it science fiction.  The Japanese do quite well with their research.

The characters of this show are about as varied as it can get.  There is Ciel, who is a cold-hearted leader, who used to be a very happy boy, before his parents were killed.  His cold demeanor is never melted, not once.  His demeanor does, however, hide a deep misery that he has worked very hard to keep to himself.  Then there is Sebastian.  The completely and overwhelmingly evil nature of this character is totally undermined by how absolutely proper and good-natured he presents himself as.  He gets into his role so well that those who are outside of the knowledge of what he is are completely fooled.  However, it is creepy at time, in the most profound way, to see how good-natured his act can be. 

There are also Ciel’s servants around the house, who all have unique backstories, and complicated pasts.  It is quite possible that they were all sought by Ciel for that reason.  There is a even a creature that transforms from a demon-hound to a man (who is often completely naked) often.  Then there are those in the supernatural world that Ciel runs into rather consistently.  This series is a bumper-crop of great characters, but honestly, the greatest thing about this truly marvelous show is the presentation. 

This show couldn’t have a darker concept driving it if it tried.  What makes this show so unbelievably brilliant is how it can take this hopelessly dark concept and shine it up and give it a totally different spin.  The humor level that drive so much of the show is just brilliant.  However, when you get into the inherant darkness of the series, this show could not possibly be more disturbing.  There are moments when I have watched episodes of Black Butler and have felt a chill go up my spine.  So much of what makes this animated show great is the fact that it can go from being incredibly funny to being disturbing and terrifying beyond all reason.

There is so much garbage anymore that is on televisions.  It is rare that something comes along that makes us all think to ourselves about what a great story can be.  Great story should be everything.  Great story should be what people really care about.  However, so many people I have met tell me how it can sometimes be perfectly acceptable for it to be nothing more than an attractive body, like my own mother with the Twilight films, and about pretty colors and good special effects, like the film Avatar.  Truly, this is a sad day for those who actually work to make great television.

I kind of love the fact that my aunt Joan was able to say exactly what I thought about something.  So many people rag on animated shows, like this one, because it is animated, and real people are not acting.  They say that animated shows are not valid because of the lack of real people.  When I explained this position to my aunt, she replied, “yeah, as they watch Family Guy.”  Word for word what I thought when saying that.  that was pretty cool.

Black Butler is a phenomonal show.  It is one of the reasons that a story-seeker like me looks for new programs.  It is still ongoing, with a third season coming.  I cannot wait.  For those who haven’t seen it, do.  But I warn you, this show is not made for the feint of heart.  Not all animated shows are for kids.  I sure as hell wouldn’t let my kids watch this.  After the scene where a Reaper nearly cuts off Sebastian’s arm, and then subsequently kills a woman by sticking his specially modified scythe through her chest, and since it functions like a chainsaw, cuts her insides out, yeah, not for kids.  But still awesome.

Until next time, a quote,

“You see, Madame, I am simply one Hell of a butler.”  -Sebastian Michaelis, Black Butler 

Peace out,

Maverick

Uptight Religious People

So, I recently had a discussion with a good friend of mine.  She and her husband are among my favorite people.  She is just a really cool person, in every way.  We do have a very hardcore difference between the two of us- she is a pretty devout Catholic and I am a rather melancholy atheist.  Of course, we are able to see past that, because, when it comes to good friendship, it is a pretty stupid thing to get hung up about.  However, there was one conversation of interest that I thought I would mention.

I have an anime series that is among my favorites.  It was a beautifully told story, had marvelous characters, and basically was everything that a good story should be.  The series is called Neon Genesis Evangelion, or just Evangelion, as most people call it.  In my opinion, it is a rather cold and brilliantly spun science-fiction version of the Book of Revelations.  It has so many elements from that biblical story, if you look closely.  Despite the fact that I am against organized religion and I think the Bible is bunk, this story was brilliantly told, and is a classic both to me, and to anime academics and fans at large.

Evangelion tells the story of humanity’s final stand.  After an incident called “Second Impact,” over half of our total population is dead, and the human race is trying to survive.  However, there are powerful entities called “Angels” that are actively trying to destroy us.  Nerv is an organization who stands against them.  They use giant mechas called “Eva’s” to fight against the Angels.  They are piloted by young children.  The newest among them is Shinji Ikari.  He is a chronically depressed young man who is really one of the few who stands between humanity and complete annihilation. 

This series has a lot of really great themes, while it shows humanity’s desperate struggle to keep itself alive, even in the face of completely overwhelming odds.  It tackles Shinji’s complete lack of a will to live or to do anything at all, due to his hardcore depression.  There is Asuka, who is dealing with some pent-up emotional problems.  There is Rei, who sees no reason to live, since she can be easily replaced.  There are a lot of great themes, and some pretty great images too.

Of course, the original series fell apart when money ran out in the end.  The creator of the show even admits that his budget constraints didn’t allow him to create the show he wanted to create.  However, there has recently been a series of movies that have come out.  FUNimation studios brought the show back to life, and has decided to make a series of full-length movies, rather than an actual series.  The premise is still the same, but the effects, some of the voice actors (but not the ones that really matter), and some of the details of the show have changed.

The new series of movies are called the Rebuild of Evangelion series, and they are all incredible.  I have watched the second over and over, and it never gets old.  It is in my top 10 favorite movies, for sure!  These new films capture some elements that the series missed, and changed some elements that the series has.  One thing that has changed is the biblical connotations that the original series toned down a little.  And this is where I want to talk about the topic of this blog- uptight religious people.

Back to the aforementioned friend.  Her husband took severe issue with some of the imagery of the series.  One picture that made him turn away was an image of one of the machines, an EVA, being carried like it was hanging on a cross.  Let me first say that that image was done intentionally.  The EVA’s were meant to symbolize a savior-like image.  However, they were also depicted as being devils in some parts as well.  There is a rather marvelous reverse of images in this series that has put it at odds with so many religious groups. 

Angels are the enemies of humanity in this series.  They are actively working to destroy us.  They are looking for a creature called “Lilith.”  Lilith is the source of all life on Earth.  From her, all life was spawned.  I guess that you could call her God, and the connotations are that she is a devine being.  The EVAs were all built from her.  Supposedly, if Lilith and an Angel combine, it will trigger a Third Impact, which will effectively wipe out all life on Earth.

The religious implications of this series are HUGE!  Make no mistake, this is an absolutely science-fiction spin on a religious story, and it works.  You see, the Book of Revelations was hopelessly vague.  In my opinion, since I think end of the world prophecies and all that are bullshit, I get why it was done this way.  It is the reason that everybody is talking about things like this or that being a “sign.”  The Book of Revelations was almost waiting to be picked up by an ambitious young creator who wanted to make something more out of it.  The creator of Evangelion was brilliant enough to do this, and created a splendid work of fiction out of it.

But the problem here is that so many people choose to be closed off.  People who will talk about a show with religious implications being bad or “satanic” or whatever are people who do not have the understanding and the open mind enough to be able to think to something more.  And it is hypocritical anyway, because if a book or something is openly religious, but keeps to what they want it to be, they don’t have a problem (the Left Behind series, anyone?) with it.  This is kind of pathetic, and it is a slap in the face of those who pursue good fiction.  If a religious person writes something with magic, it is okay, because of the religious person. 

The fact is this- religious people, grow up, and get an open mind.  I know, it’s a bit scary, but do it. 

Until next time, a quote,

“Miracles of man are better than miracle from God!”  -Misato Kisuragi, Neon Genesis Evangelion

Peace out,

Maverick 

The Line Between Madness and Reality

We watch movies about this concept all the time.  There have been some truly fantastic films that depict this ancient philsophical argument.  This argument, or rather, this thought process has been around since there have been philosophers at all.  Some of my favorite movies depict this problem.  Last year, a great film was made about this concept.  The film was called Black Swan.  All through it, you didn’t know what to think, or what was real and what wasn’t.  In the end, some of the greatest things have been born from the mission to find out what is real, and what isn’t?  But while I have you, let me ask you- what is real?

Here is what I think- there is absolutely no way to know that something is absolutely real.  My friend Nic said that the only thing he knew was real was himself.  Whether he was a dream in somebody’s mind, or not, he is real because of the knowledge that he can perceive himself.  The rest of the world could be real or not.  Personally, I don’t really care about that.

My fascination with reality is born from the fact that I have never really cared what is real or not.  There are days when I am looking at my own hand and I feel like it is not mine.  I can move the fingers, the eyes, the legs, but these things belong to somebody or something else, or I am not a part of them.  Of course, that isn’t the reason that madness and reality fascinate me.  The real reason is because I am a dreamer.  My dreams, my fantasies, I am able to absorb myself in them for hours on end.  I can become one with my dreams and I can sink into them and forget about the world for a while. 

So, when I watch movies like Black Swan and Donnie Darko, I am able to enjoy them much more because to me, it isn’t the fact that you don’t really know where the delusion ends and the reality begins.  It is the fact that, more often than not, the characters seem to find it easier to just go with the fantasy.  It has been done in plays too.  The most famous example probably would be Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.  The main character, Willy Loman, chooses to simply abandon reality, rather than live with the truth.

In Black Swan, the main character chooses to abandon herself to the fantasy, because in the fantasy, she was absolutely perfect.  Of course, she didn’t really know where the fantasy and reality were, but she was perfectly fine with abandoning herself to it.  As long as she was able to be perfect, nothing else mattered.  There was an episode of one of my favorite anime series’ Neon Genesis Evangelion where Shinji is content to let himself live in the delusional world, because in that place, he couldn’t be hurt.

But there are also pieces of media that show the characters rising above their madness.  In the series Rahxephon, the main character, Ayato Kamina, chose to reject the fantasy world, because it wasn’t real, and it wasn’t what he wanted.  In the Star Trek film Generations, Kirk chose to let the fantasy world go because he couldn’t get the same mental fulfillment out of it that he wanted.  In the film A Beautiful Mind, the main character chose to abandon the fantasy world his mental disorder has given him and to be in reality where those he loved existed. 

The fact is that the idea of fantasy, or often madness, is used a lot in cinema, books, plays, television, pretty much everywhere.  It is used often for the purpose of showing up how things in this world are.  Let’s face it, life is pretty hard.  People are suffering all over the world.  It never ceases to bug me how people will say that their success is from God.  Yes, God just loves you to death, and has decided that he doesn’t love the billions of people in this world who are suffering every single day from poverty, disease, war, all forms of horror.  How are you better than them?  Of course, present the religious with that, and they simply say that God’s ways are “higher” or that there is a “plan.”

This is where I wanted to talk about religion.  There is something interesting about religion.  I think that Bill Maher may have a point when he says that it is a neurological disorder.  There is something genuinely disturbing about billions of people all over this planet choosing to abandon rationality and choose abandon reason.  Reason tells us that what religious books talk about is absolute insanity and nonsense.  A person naturally believes that those books are full of shit.  People naturally tend to believe that something like magic or supernatural powers is just complete lunacy. 

What religion does is that it gives people comfort from a hard world.  People often need that comfort.  I’m going to say this- there is no way that Christianity is true.  It isn’t the first faith, it isn’t the last.  If the Christian God was real, and he was really that powerful, there wouldn’t be any other faiths.  I’m sorry, but there wouldn’t be.  The Christian faith is a faith that was made by mostly plagiarizing other stories and making something that sounds good.  It’s ironic, but when it originated in Roman times, God was not the only guy in town.  The Christian God was merely the ruler of all the Roman Gods.  That was how it worked. 

The fact is that people want to believe in God for the same reason that people like me like to escape into a good fantasy- because life is really hard, and there are times when it just helps to abandon the world that you know and understand and to let yourself go.  I get why you Christians want your faith so much.  But the fact is that it isn’t real.  Your God isn’t the real one.  I personally don’t think there is one at all, and if there is, it is nothing like the Christian God.  It is nothing like anything we can possibly understand. 

But reality has to be respected to.  And what’s more, we can improve our reality.  If humanity could come together, imagine what wonderful things we could create!  Imagine what we could accomplish if we came together as a species and decided to make the world a better place!  We could accomplish so much.  We could make life better for everybody.  That is what I believe, anyway.  And when I see people who deliberately abandon reality to lose themselves in a fantas world, not caring how things are in this real world, I often think that maybe, just maybe, humanity wasn’t meant to get this far…

Until next time, a quote,

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” -Philip K. Dick

Peace out,

Maverick