Never age in itself, but I dare flaunt with the experience that may come with it (though never for the sake of it).
I liked them a lot, but not as much as KHII's bosses. I still haven't forgiven the huge difficulty spike in the last world though (then again I am a horrible player according to FAQs because I never equip the commands that would apparently help me).
29 hours and 11 minutes in Normal Mode. I'll continue with this playthrough and try to unlock all commands, Dream Eaters and treasure chests before I tackle a harder difficulty level.
No problem. I just also felt the need to elaborate after your post. XD
While he has his flaws, I find his arguments in the Debate Corner among the most comprehensive and I appreciate the fact that he gets to the point. Like I said, there are only two valid candidates for this title (with all due respect for the other nominees): Nova and PaW. I chose the latter because discussion with Nova tends to get lost in semantics a lot more often. When I debate, I want to dive right in. This is the criterion that for me tilted the balance, since the two aren't too different intelligence-wise (and if one would count quantity of debates as a factor, PaW would nail that too). And yeah, it's quite common to take the Debate Corner more seriously than other sections. That being said, I didn't limit my judgement to posts in that section only.
* Jiku Neon, Guardian Soul and DarkTraitor are all very intelligent members, but you'd hard-pressed to actually see them debate. * Below and hatok...Can't say much about them at all. Neither have made much of an impression on me (which I don't mean as a bad thing). * Makaze was a prolific and savvy debater...last year, for which he rightfully claimed the title of Master Debater 2012. The awards, however, are an annual event and have to be earned (back) every year. * Ars Nova and Peace-and-War are both skilled debaters and highly intelligent. I've crossed proverbial swords with both of them and loved it. They are the only members on this list deserving of the title (this year) and all in all, I think PaW deserves it slightly more. He obviously loves debating, is seen doing it often, and is seen doing it well. Few members get all three right.
I'd rather be the cool uncle.
Close enough: it's 23.
Why [i]should[/i] I show it? There's no reason for it to be the default. ;-)
Things would never have worked out between us, Nova.
Something you want to do with something you have to do.
I'll want to test that out... ...Never mind, I'll take your word for it.
"We're having guests tomorrow so you better make sure all flies, mosquitos and spiders are gone by tomorrow evening." I have a fly swatter, deodorant, a lighter, a venus flytrap and coffee at the ready. Wish me luck!
I looked it in the face and it was not in fact one of the cutest ficional animals I have ever seen. So about that refund...
Llave Proportions of the first piece are way off, but I'm guessing this is intentional. A decent drawing but no more than that. I like the second piece quite a bit better. Like the way the freckles were done, but there are many good things to say about this image (the hair and the scarf motif are also top-notch). One small point of critique: the shading of the throat looks too much like a grinning mouth. Drawing the neck/throat in one smooth line would have prevented this, I think. Dinny I think I remember Dinny's works from last year and that I was truly impressed by them. That being said, I will only judge these samples here. The first entry looks slick once again, with a lot of attention to detail (especially obvious in the clavicles, although they do tend to make the shoulders look skinny). Eyes are beautifully drawn in both pieces and hold a viewer's attention in such a way that it is impossible for them to merely glance at the work. I'm equally in awe when looking at the second piece. The hair-to-blot transition wasn't consistently smooth, but overall it is another magnificent piece. Chie Satonaka Is this an original character? If so, then I applaud the creative design (even though it's not really my style). Proportions mostly look all right, the background matches the foreground and it is overall a solid piece. It's not my personal cup of tea (cutesy things seldom are), but from a technical point of view Chie seems to have nailed this. I wish there was a second piece to comment on though. TAFFY TAFFY seems to improve every year, which makes me wonder when she will hit her ceiling. Sometimes her works seem complex for the sake of being complex though, such as her first entry here, which is a shame. If there is meaning behind the frills, it's unfortunately lost on me. Nevertheless, I feel like I should emphasize that the aesthetics of TAFFY's works are superb and hard to match. The second piece also illustrates her mastery of contrasts. I was reminded of a stone bust, something hard and durable, yet I couldn't overlook the elegance and charm of the woman portrayed. The background hardly fits, but maybe that's just another way to present a contrast. Great drawing skills either way. Ienzo Much like with Chie Satokana's work, I wonder whether the man in the first piece is an original creation or an existing character, because I certainly dig his design. There's something about his face that looks...off though. I can't put my finger on it. Try to avoid grammatical errors in one-liners ("Small events are"); it's not like you have a lot of text to overlook things in. The second drawing is simply stunning, and one of the best works in this thread if not the best. The upper lip could be a bit thicker but everything else looks flawless. The eyes look inquiring and vaguely challenging, almost too real for a character of fiction. jojoj13 Interesting piece. The theme and overall atmosphere of this painting sets itself apart from everything else in this thread. The realistic and incredibly well-painted skin tone stands out to me here, as well as the character's grin. Only two small complaints from me. First, the hair in the back makes the man's head look somewhat blocky and unnatural. Second, there is no second piece for me to comment on. I'm liking what I do get to see though. Tough choice but I think Dinny Grayson impressed me most. All nominees had at least one great piece to show though; it was truly hard to decide.
Odamadillo Odamadillo puts a lot of effort in his pieces, and I respect him for that. He obviously puts effort into making his poems lengthy and detailed, and doesn't resort to convenient pseudo-rhymes. Some lines boil down to the same thing though, which looks an awful lot like beating around the bush. I do, however, dig the repetition of "Darkness, eat my heart" in the first piece because it emphasizes the idea of a negative spiral the narrator has been thrust into. The second piece ponders over an interesting question. I like the ending, where the narrator seems to answer his own question. In fact, Odamadillo seems to have good endings down in general. nasirrich I don't like "I'm awesome" poems/raps/songs. At all. It's a good thing then, that Nas' first piece is quite a bit more than that. Reading through the entire poem, one can't help but realize that this is actually a commendable challenge to writers to take their work seriously. The first stanza still irked me, but poetry with a message is something I approve of. "Bar Fax" lacks the cohesion in the first piece, but has stupendous rhymes and flow and genius lines such as "The product of true artists can't multiply" (ain't that the truth?). Vinyl Scratch I would have stuck to only one stanza of comparisons (they seemed to drag on a bit), but on the other hand it was a great way to make the mood whiplash all the more jarring. "Poetic Rant" successfully mixes love, sadness and a hint of anger and it all boils down to an enjoyable, emotional read. "Words" demonstrates just how good Vinyl Scratch's rhyming skills are whilst not distracting from the content of the poem. Loved the closure too. Styx "Yesteryear's Cradle" may well be the Ghost In The Shell of poetry: ambitious, thought-provoking, intricate. It also has many of the same flaws. For all its philosophical musings, their vagueness and overdose of imagery can be off-putting and is simply not quite entertaining. I like the little things a lot though: the choice of format (from chaotic free verse to orderly and back again), the crescendo in "One Skip From Eden" and even the haiku, even though they're basically glorified time skips. Everything has meaning, but the wish to impress the reader is far too obvious. Great poetry; it's only unfortunate that the whole epic is as subtle as Ted Nugent driving a tank through your house and blasting your couch to confetti. His second entry was therefore well chosen since it balances out these impressions. Nothing grand here but a simple, even slightly cliché tale of a single man's struggle with guilt. There is nothng remarkable about it, which is the most neutral comment ever but important nonetheless. Its quality of being, well, ordinary may prove to be a nice change even if it disappoints the author itself. Last but not least, using Wiktionary to find good rhyming words (painfully easy to tell in some instances) is kinda cheap. It is the equivalent of buying an authentically crafted item and then finding out that it was "Made in Taiwan". For shame... Maka "My Weary Head" is a superb piece of poetry and perfectly conveys how tired the narrator is of fighting. The "monsters love my closet" line was pretty clever too. "The Price Of Solitude" is dark, brooding and even slightly nightmarish. What is implied is as powerful and telling as what is actually written, if not more so. The ending was heart-wrenching and left a wry aftertaste, even though we had already gotten a taste of the road the character was heading down. Goes to show how great the piece was. ⟣ HYUGE ⟢ Ah, experimenting with the form. I love it when poets do that. I dare say it worked quite well here. The fading effect was clever and contributed to the emotional impact of the poem. Shouldn't it be "through every pore" though, or was that a play on words? I think the second piece is the better one. Using haiku for stanzas worked in giving the poem a more dreamy feel, lulling the reader into a false sense of security before taking a turn for the darker. It also contains more imagery than the first piece (which makes sense in a poem about dreams). Choosing who to vote for has been difficult. I think my two favorites were Maka and ⟣ HYUGE ⟢ . The latter, however, earns bonus points for working with the form of the poems in addition to the content. So yeah, my vote goes to ⟣ HYUGE ⟢.
Yes, I read it all, but not as thorougly as I should have apparently. You can disregard the comment about Ned disappearing, and I apologize for the mix-up.
First off, thanks for nominating me and thank you to whoever votes for me. Now then, on to the CnC... Plums Plums knows how to grab a reader's attention. There is a dreamy quality about his pieces, luring the reader further in. His entries share the characteristic of saying a lot (especially regarding character development) in relatively few words. The atmosphere is melancholic, without being whiny, and at times bittersweet. I very much like his writing style too. Plums makes his pieces come full circle and still manages to leave the door ajar for continuation. Classy. What? What? demonstrates a professional's level of skill in both pieces. He is eloquent and knows which elements a great story should contain. The twist in the first piece was clever and well-presented. The build-up in that piece was slow though, and certain fragments seemed to serve no purpose other than to delay the reveal at the end. While I understand that most people will be sucked in by his eloquence and sense of detail, it doesn't always work for me (by which I mean that it still works more often than not). Saxima Riku's concern and guilt are very realistically portrayed here. Saxima's story seamlessly fits into the actual Kingdom Hearts universe, and I'd go as to say that these extra details are something the story of Kingdom Hearts could use. There's not much to comment on story-wise, but I do like how human the character is portrayed. Styx (Yeah, reviewing my own work again.) Access could stand alone as an original story. Why the author turned it into a fanfic rather than simply being inspired by the source material is anyone's guess. Nevertheless, behind the premise of getting drunk and partying lies a decent story about deception and choices. Some of the dialogues are sharp and witty, especially near the end. The climax was more chaotic than the author would have liked, but is in turn more realistic than cinematic shootouts and deux ex machinae. There are elements of convenience (i.e. the memory wiper) and plot holes though, some inexcusable and some deliberately left to the reader's imagination. All in all, it's an attempt the author can be proud of, but not a masterpiece. Killswitch handles roughly the same themes and is therefore odd for a second entry. The imagery is vivid and the language eloquent, but it just seems like a typical case of trying too hard and ending up pretentious. Unlike some clever poems that seem to improve upon subsequent reads, you either dig Killswitch or you don't. There's no middle ground. A poem that caters to few, but which will probably be very much liked by those few. Jiku Neon Interactive stories are always a challenge, because you don't just need ideas for a single plotline, but for several at once. I didn't read through it all, but I'm giving Jiku Neon points for just being committed to it. The second fragment displays a very vivid writing style. It is passionate and powerful, and the piece has an ending that leaves me wondering what happens next (which I hadn't really encountered in this thread before). You get a good idea of what the characters are like, even if they don't develop much in this short extract. While I don't think these pieces are the best in this thread per se, Jiku Neon is without a doubt a very skilled writer. darkhorse D What the-? I don't have any idea what I just read. A cross-over is difficult to get right but very rewarding when it is done right. I, however, am not really convinced. The fragments are short, shorter than what good character development and drama need in my humble opinion. The tragedy is treated somewhat matter-of-factly here. I don't know if it was intentional, but I didn't really like it. Also, why does Ned disappear halfway through? It is a shame because his ability was an insanely interesting concept with lots of potential. Darkhorse D is, however, a very gifted poet. Bloody good rhymes. A piece with an epic ring to it, foreboding at one point and hopeful the next. I can only wonder why he wasn't nominated for Best Poet. Plums and What? can each have a half of the gold medal for all I care. Choices, however, need to be made. Therefore I base my decision on which pieces best invited me to read them. They belonged to Plums.
Odamadillo Odamadillo's piece was exactly as the title promised: empowering. Calling his friends by their names and thus personally involving them was a great idea. Still, some of the lines he used those names in felt a bit underwhelming compared to, say, the opening stanza. Excellent poetry nonetheless. Myst Myst treads carefully in the realm of imagery, which is a bit of a shame because I'd have liked to see it used more often throughout the poem. On the other hand, this piece was very bold and honest. This naked truth, both touching and moving, covers a wide range of the emotional spectrum. Some rhymes were off, but not to the extent that it distracts from the content. Nice work. Both pieces are well deserving of their place here, but I'm gonna go with "A Life It Has Been". It left more of an impression on me.
And to think changing one character's and one location's name would have put me in an entirely different category with less competition... XD I don't care where it ends up though, I'm just glad I got nominated. Voting for "Disconnect" because it doesn't have to rely on recognizability.
