Let's do this reply step-by-step, since this is the third time I've tried to post and my internet's cocked up. 1) Nobody in this thread has really disagreed with anything you're saying. Look at all the posts saying 'Sora's not gay! He loves Kairi!' Therefore, I don't know what half the reaction here is about. 2) In Days, Roxas doesn't really comprehend 'love', and hardly even has an understanding of 'friendship', so he doesn't 'love' Xion and his reasoning for them being 'friends' is additionally pretty shaky. As for Naminé, they've not had enough interaction to actually call 'ship'. So ya know. ;) 3) The reason people draw and write SoraRiku is because it's not canon, so otherwise they have no way to see it happen. But they want to, so instead of flaming or leaving the franchise for something that trivial, they just make it for themselves instead. 4) SoraKairi DOES exist on the Internet to be found if you're willing to narrow your search down a bit. It sounds stupid, I know, but people don't have much of a motivation to make it when it's half-canon. 5) I say it's half-canon because while the hints are as obvious as a brick to the head, Nomura's already said there's no romance in the original cast, just strong friendship and devotion. 6) Our society is starting to become more accepting of homosexuality, but we still haven't pinned down the correct reaction yet. That might be a factor as to the overload, but I doubt it. It's much more possible that fan-girls just wanna see two guys get close, something that doesn't happen on TV as often as two girls getting close does. 7) At no point has anybody actually insinuated that any of the members here are gay. And even if any of us came to the conclusion that Sora and Riku aren't just friends, we'd certainly not be saying that it's impossible for two people of the same gender to be close friends. We would just think that Sora and Riku are too close for that. 8) Which part is disgusting, that we're considering people being gay, that we're discussing it quite openly without much tact, or that we're discussing the sexuality of Disney characters? 9) The 'Roxora equals masturbation' thing was just a joke. There could've been worse. 10) If you honestly think this thread is disgusting, then God help you if you ever stumble upon 'Meatspin'. 11) Also, warning for everybody here before we continue: a character being gay doesn't always mean they'll have a sudden rabid sexuality; same with real life. So even if Sora and Riku were gay with each other, they won't be humping each other at every possible moment, since that's not in their characters. Similarly, if we're coupling Sora and Kairi, this isn't a synonym of both characters being celibate. The question that started the thread is about romance anyway, not sex!
For a second there, when Haley spoke, I was a bit confused because his voice didn't sound familiar. It seems he's being a bit more natural in his tones than he was in KHII and ReCoM (or what little I've seen of that), and that's what messed me up. Meanwhile, Mr Iwan still needs to learn to speak more urgently and less happy-go-lucky when voicing Mickey as a King, but hey! At least he's not working with the somewhat stilted and mistranslated script Tomato wrote for KHII, so he still sounds pretty normal. XD
He tried to get you arrested for a hate crime? You reacted because somebody was being attacked and you wanted to help them. That is in no way a hate crime. However, since you didn't stop at pushing the man into the ground you did branch into unnecessary assault... though if the man had been arrested and put through the system he probably wouldn't have received as much punishment as he deserved, so that's a slightly grey area. Now, the man's crime as 'hate crime'? The only way to tell, really, is to find out what his motive was in robbing the man - was he robbing him because solely he was black and he thought the man deserved it? Or was he just robbing him because he needed money and that was the first person he targeted (with the 'stupid black' thing just being an insult he thought up in the heat of the moment)? In this case, though, it doesn't really matter. He can't have had any noble reason for doing so.
In chronological order, the 'exclusivity' thing is turned on its head. Keyblade War: Yen Sid, Eraqus, Xehanort, thousands of others. NUMBER CONFIRMED: 1000+ BBS: Ven, Aqua, Terra, Eraqus, Xehanort, Vanitas (only because of Ven). NUMBER CONFIRMED: 6 Number derived: 1 KHI: Sora, Mickey. NUMBER CONFIRMED: 2 COM/DAYS: Sora, Roxas (only because of Sora), Xion (only because of Sora), Mickey. NUMBER CONFIRMED: 4 Number derived 2 KHII PROLOGUE: Roxas (only because of Sora), Mickey. NUMBER CONFIRMED: 2 Number derived: 1 KHII: Sora, Mickey. NUMBER CONFIRMED: 2 KHII ENDGAME: Sora, Mickey, Riku. Kairi never confirmed to actually keep the Keyblade she is given. NUMBER CONFIRMED: 3 Number unconfirmed: 1 CODED: Sora, Mickey, Riku. Data Sora never confirmed to own a real Keyblade; Kairi still not confirmed to keep. NUMBER CONFIRMED: 3 Number unconfirmed: 2 KH3D: Sora, Mickey, Riku. Kairi still not confirmed to keep, and confirmed unable to take the Mark of Mastery. NUMBER CONFIRMED: 3 Number unconfirmed: 1 After the results of the 'Second Keyblade War' onwards, the number of confirmed wielders (able to repeatedly call their weapon) doesn't fluctuate very wildly, capping at three. And when it actually surpasses three during Days, it's only because Roxas and Xion are piggybacking off Sora's ability.
...Idea. What if, in choosing not to use the Keyblade, he actually lost it?
And yet, I play that game for fun. Something must obviously be horribly wrong with me! Now I knew I had AS, but this is obviously the harbinger of some other kind of doom- ...That, or I like rhythm games. :P ...But seriously, guys. You sit in a freakin' piano cannon that shoots ice cream. You have absolutely no idea how awesome that really is!
Actually, it's the bit where she attacks them in Bathilda's house in Godric's Hollow, and Hermione knocks her down the stairs, and there's this very painful wait because you know she's gonna pop up again but when is sh- OH HOLY SH**-
The Godric's Hollow thing came about because Dumbledore (who sent Harry on the quest to begin with) and Bathilda Bagshot (who knew Dumbledore personally and therefore might have an idea of what he wanted them to do) both lived there, and they hadn't any other leads to go on. As for the locket... I was slightly more worried as to why Harry's idea on how to get the sword was to strip his clothes off and jump in... in the freezing cold of winter. >=\ But then again, Harry's more known for a smart mouth than smart actions. When you remember it was gonna be in 3D, it kinda makes sense. Also, the jumping thing only really happened once, with Nagini, and by god did everybody suddenly fly out of their seat. The girl behind me screamed.
Ah, but I kinda just meant the fundamental processes here (anime just seems to have a much lower frame-rate). Yes, there is a difference between the use of animation in the west and in the east, but both terms just refer to a process of working.
You know something I've noticed? Whenever I've seen animation discussed on the internet, especially by the 'smart' crowd (which essentially translates to the people who use grammatically-correct English and so get all huffy about) and even on animation blogs, and even on this site where we really should know better, I've noticed a huge trend. Apparently, CG animation automatically means bad writing, bad jokes and 'snarky' dialogue, while traditional animation means heart and care and all these wonderful wonderful things that 'they just can't do anymore because they're idiots and we're smart but of course we're going to just sit here and complain and b*tch and snicker about it instead of trying to do something like really smart people'. Yes, all the bad traits of recent animated movies have been dumped onto the animation style. And I just find it bloody ridiculous. So I'm gonna explain a few things right now. 1) CG animation is "always used for low-budget cartoon films with bad scripts". Indeed, low-budget. The thing about computer technology is, it's not just gotten better graphically, but it's also gotten cheaper. What was so much dearer than traditional animation fifteen years ago is now so cheap anybody can do in their own home without training. It's not that CG influences bad writing, but that the low budget calls for CG because other methods of animation are too expensive, and that lack of budget is also responsible for the bad script, and guess which came first? Incidentally, the films with low budgets can be spotted just from their trailers. The animation is undetailed and the lighting usually flat. But seriously, rewind time and this kind of film was produced with traditional animation as well. 2) Traditional animation "has heart". This is a trend started by Disney, of course. Low-budget traditionally-animated films owe all their bad and annoying points to various Disney characters and settings. They tend to be overloaded with sugar, with cutesy talking animals and magic and love and all those things while trying to actually have heart, which is nothing the animation style can do on its own. If you need me to actually give examples of low-budget films like this, try watching Ferngully, The Swan Princess and The Pebble and the Penguin. 3) CG animation "has no heart because it's snarky and full of pop culture references". This trend was started by the original Shrek film, I believe, which did it well. And even then, that was going off a theme set by Hercules, which did it so-so. (Incidentally, both of those films have plots with 'heart' in them, which overpower the snark and parody.) But you shouldn't blame it on the animation style - nearly everything produced in the twenty-first century has these 'smart' undertones, likely because of the whole 'realistic dialogue' thing they're trying to get at. Because people in real life do snark and they don't try to pretend that brands don't exist. The thing is, like a lovey-dovey traditional animation plot, it's very hard to get right, but film-makers don't care either way when they're trying to make money. 4) Traditional animation is "better because the animators actually care about what they're making, while CG animators just click buttons and the computer does all the work". Of course, both of them require a lot of work from the animators. Traditional animation can be considered easier for people to just pick up because absolutely everything is just drawn onto the page and quite easy to edit, plus there's only two dimensions, so movement is easy to animate. With CG, however, to create a decent bit of animation involves wrestling with a computer, and the only bit the computer does automatically is playback (for checking that an animation has been done correctly) and rendering (turning a clip into smoothed images that are then merged into film). The reason traditional animation actually costs so much is the paper - one mistake and you're buying more of it. But a computer can just delete a bad frame with a click. 5) "Audiences much prefer 2D to 3D. Look, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer got more people watching than Shrek the Halls! Isn't that proof enough for you?" (Yes, this stupid comment was on an animation blog, and apparently took a long time for somebody to give a correct answer to, which was then immediately rebuked.) First off, that Rudolph animation is stop-motion animation, so it's more akin to CG than it is to traditional. Second, what families watch on television is often delegated by what parents think is more appropriate for their children, and usually this translates into 'what I watched as a kid'. Obviously, Shrek the Halls only came out a couple of years ago, and Rudolph's been around for decades. It's got nothing to do with the animation style whatsoever. 6) Common misconceptions about animation. Animation is a process of film-making, not a genre of film. Animation is, obviously, not a genre specifically for children. Not all animation is Disney. Anime and animation are actually the same thing. They're the same word. If you really insist on telling me 'Pixar is the same as Disney', then call ABC, Miramax, Touchstone and ESPN 'Disney' as well. I bet you won't.
... And now, as my brain narrates: "Somewhere, in the realms of nothingness, Luxord sipped his tea with a mischievous grin. He hoped Xemnas enjoyed his destination."
Hmm... but time travel is a... weirdly good idea, when you think about it. Not only is the No Name Keyblade time-related in design, but you, the player, have to time-travel to get to the boss fight itself.
Yes, there is a 'normal'. For example, you know how people tend to answer 'no, there isn't a normal! just be yourself!' when asked this question? That's called a normal response, guys. You're not expected to answer in any other way. There is a 'normal' in terms of 'this is what a normal person thinks' and 'this is how a normal person looks like' and 'this is how a normal person acts'. If you do something outside of those categories, it becomes notable. And do you know what a 'normal person' looks like? White human male, medium height, mesomorph body type, not disabled mentally or physically (he moves and acts 'normally'), straight. And anything else needs to be pointed out.
I don't think at any point BBS was intended to be 'an apology to non-Japanese fans'. When did they actually say that? Now, in the end, I don't really care about new secret bosses. All I want to see are the new cutscenes, because there's your extra plot to make sense of things.
Ooh-me-you-ree. Also Ienzo gets pronounced all Italian and eeyEHHHHN'zo and now all I can think of is, "It's-a me! Ienzo!"
I can't make videos, sorry. I don't know how to capture video from a PSP. ;_; But seriously, of all the things Vanitas can't get hit by, Zero Gravity spells aren't in the list.
Interesting... What I got out of BBS was that there were a lot of Keybladers back at the time of the war. However, they managed to nearly wipe themselves out trying to create the X-Blade, unable to produce the exact balance of pure light against pure darkness, and there's been a huge shortage of them ever since. At least, that's what it seemed when I put together the words and the visual of the field of blades. Once BBS finished, Mickey was the only person around who wielded a Keyblade, and not even actively. After about eight or nine years of that, it then becomes kinda understandable that it turned from 'the Keyblades' into 'the Keyblade'. When Xehanort and Vanitas were going on about their own Keyblade War, however, I reckoned they meant 'a clash between Keyblades that can cause a great negative effect on the worlds' rather than battles between huge groups of people. Even if it was just two people fighting, that would be enough to create the X-Blade and give the power of Kingdom Hearts to whatever victor came to claim the spoils.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4.
Zero Graviga on Vanitas. Everybody go and do it now, it's hilarious.
Once again with Zidane - Zidane is a real name, and it's French. It's understandable to not get the correct pronunciation when the word is in text because you don't know it at the time, but you shouldn't be surprised when such things sound different when actually said.
