LOTS happened, but it's almost 3 am, still haven't worked on my comic, not gonna even really post this, got too much else to do right now, will get to it all tomorrow.
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So today, I realized that one of my two favorite films of all time also falls into the category of a Magnificent Seven Samurai-styled film, only with vikings instead of samurai.
I am, of course, referring to The Thirteenth Warrior. Obviously, the film is not intentionally following that formula. It's, loosely, based on the tale of Beowulf, following that format better than any other, with thirteen gathered warriors to fight the monstrous foe. ...So in this case, definitely accidental. But the same basic principle is there. Think about it for a second: a small village, full of villagers, is under attack by a vastly-superior foe. The old elder of the village (a king in this case) calls for help, and a group of varied warriors volunteer for a task they know to be borderline-suicide. The difference is thirteen instead of seven, but more on that in a bit. The villagers even have one antagonistic villager (the prince in this case) who the warriors need to confront after the fighting has begun but before the final fight (just like the original), and there's a female villager, common in most tellings of the story, attracted to the wimpy warrior of the bunch. (Usually the kid of the fighters, in this case being the protagonist who is initially laughed at until the aftermath of the second battle where he 'earns his manhood'...another parallel mind you.) It even follows a common pattern: the enemies attack. Attack is repelled. Enemies attack again. Attack is repelled, at great cost, villagers die, so do heroes. Heroes make a counter-offensive, and learn more about their enemy in the process, but heroes die as a result. Final fight, where the last heroes who die, die, and the leader of the foes is vanquished. It's not an exact replica, of course. It's not meant to be. It's meant to follow the pattern of Beowulf, not Seven Samurai. So there's differences. The protagonist lives, as per the normal, but the protagonist unlike normal is not the leader of the group. So in this case, unlike normal, the leader dies. (Because the leader is based off of Beowulf and, spoilerz, Beowulf dies! Heroically, but still.) Still...think of it. Villagers need help. They call upon heroes. Heroes volunteer for the suicide mission. After the first fight, two cannon fodder die. I don't remember how many die during the second battle, at least three. (Old guy, archer guy, tattoo guy? who dies on the roof) That'd leave a maximum of 8, though. One dies in the counter-attack, maximum of 7 alive for the final battle, in which one more dies, maximum of 6 survivors. I can vaguely recall the faces of at least three survivors, so that's the range. (Since I can't track down exact death numbers--apparently, noting which warriors die, even the cannon fodder, is not important enough to be noted; people just list it as "the warriors dwindle".) Somewhere between 3-6. If the number is 3 or 4, though...yeah. Anyway, as I type this: it appears the number of warriors going into the layer is 7 (meaning 4 died during the second battle), but according to the summary, two die in the layer (I only remember one), so...it's four survivors at the end. Exactly the rough amount you would expect. (The formula started as 3+important villager=4.) I love making discoveries like this. There were cannon fodder soldiers, sure, but many of the warriors were well-established. Leader, protagonist, protagonist's friend, other guy I remember surviving, some fourth guy I didn't remember but who did, the notable death in the cavern, that's five memorable warriors. The other deaths are debatable. I don't recall the second guy who died on the offensive, I only recall three deaths during the attack, and only one death is shown on-screen during the initial raid and it was still a guy who didn't have much development. (The three faces I remember dieing in the fight all were memorable: the archer had a fairly good line of dialog, the old guy was memorable for his attire and how he died, and the tattoo-guy died memorably and pointlessly as well.) Still, you get the impression that it's 7-8 notable warriors (7 vikings, in fact, with one outsider), and the rest serve as cannon fodder. Seem familiar? Suddenly, it does to me! Of course, this is not something I see as detracting from the film...to the contrary, I think this mental discovery I made has only increased my love of the film. I never thought about it that way until now. Yet the film's clearly brilliant. All the little details here and there, all the times they give the warriors characterization off of just their props and lines of dialog we're not even getting translations for, many things like that. It's simply a solid film. I love how it's told. Shame that it's now only a cult classic, widely considered a failure. It seems a lot of films I like are that way. Such as Clue, which was also a bit of a failure in the box office, yet is easily one of the best films of all time. I don't know why people don't have this appreciation for this sort of thing. 13th Warrior has it all. Music. Solid plot. Interesting take on things. Hilarious dialog and great characterization. A film which has a good idea what type of film it is. Great action, nice pacing, beautiful balance of different things, SOLID atmosphere and cinematography to match. For instance: the first battle is a raid: chaotic, bloody, fast, confusing, basically, a nightmare. It is shot appropriately, with nobody understanding what's going on. The second fight is a proper battle. It's a siege. The fight is drawn out and shot appropriately, switching between different characters defending different areas, and slowly revealing their foes to be not as demonic as they initially appeared, so as the battle drags on, the fighting becomes more and more human. Then, in the counter-attack, stealth is of the essence, so the scenes are slow, filled with tension. And the final battle is the epic conclusion, so is shot slowly to emphasize every moment of the bloody battle, the final battle, the life of death of the heroes, who go in fighting hard. It's got all the markings of a great film. The more and more I describe it, the more and more I learn about it, the more and more I think it's surpassing Independence Day as my favorite film of all time. (Which has traditionally tied for first with 13th Warrior.) For the record, that would place four of my favorites as being, in order, 13th Warrior, Independence Day, Clue, and a bit of a film I haven't talked about much: Twister. Now, not necessarily the same type of masterpiece as 13th Warrior, but I remember it fondly all the same as one of the few films which I actually found kinda scary as a kid, and which is still a solid story today, with a fairly good take on things. Not sure what my fifth would be. Plenty of candidates. Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines is high on that list, as is It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but I'm not sure they're actually top-five material. I'd have to really think about it for quite a while to find one film in particular above all others that makes the list. Butyeah, all of that and I didn't even get to talk about what I came here for. Basically, on Red Hood Rider: I fell behind. I couldn't even finish the page I was supposed to get done on Saturday. I was having artist's block, essentially, because while it was looking OKAY, it was...not feeling as it should be. So...in order to catch up...I now need to finish THAT page...do page sixteen which should've been done on Sunday, AND do page 17 which is today's page. ...Well, it's not IMPOSSIBLE...... I'm finally in the mood to actually talk about Red Hood Rider. Today, I mostly kicked around small little things here and there. Genders of spirit totems (basically, the only one that's clearly female is Shooting Star, Vili's spirit totem, with me being undecided on Divine Retribution--D.D.'s, which I lean male--Clairvoyant Guide--Whitney's which I lean female on--and Light Genesis--Amy's which I lean male on--and having the rest--Angel Wings, Ruby's; Tree of Life, Sally's; Shining Armor, Gary's--all clearly male), naming a small-time character (Whitney's boss, Jeremy Richardson) and merging his backstory with a small plot point (in short, making two characters that were unrelated be the same guy because they can be the same and it actually makes sense), small things like that.
While I did go into D.D. a bit (in particular, what D.D. ultimately stands for, both initially and eventually, at Ruby's suggestion), I mainly focused on Whitney. For instance, her stated character is, essentially, "cold while on the job, very loose, caring, even motherly, fun-loving, party-goer outside". I mentally calculated about where she draws the line, and where she wears her mask and when she exposes her face, not to mention, mapping out who calls her Shini and who calls her Sky when she's in Sky Shinobi mode. (Answer: Ruby nicknames her Shini, D.D. is there at the time and sticks with it, Herald also calls her by it, but all the rest call her Sky instead.) Another thing I focused on is a tactic she's fond of using: intimidation. This has always been a part of her character, but it's something I didn't really flesh out until today. Basically, Whitney is quite fond of verbally threatening villains she faces, describing all the terrible things that will happen if they resist. At first, this might not make that much sense, for a character who is supposed to be a professional superhero. It's not only unprofessional, but bad for PR, right? So why would she be fond of making them? Well, I actually found some fairly compelling mental reasons. Not sure how much real-life backing these have, but hey, they make enough sense in my head at least! Basically, for a start, similar to how police aren't going to shoot except as a last resort/out of immediate self-defense, Whitney is trained to use violence as a last resort...and when using violence, to use the minimal amount necessary to incapacitate the target. So, she will try alternative methods first. Threats are not her first move; they're her second-to-last, basically what would immediately precede actual violence. Talking to them, trying to get them to stand down, even warning them all come first. When the warnings fail, they lead into threats, but all of these are attempts to avoid confrontation. This approach is also a consequence of her being a one-woman army, handling tasks that it would take anywhere from 2-20 cops to accomplish. As an example of what she, as a professional superhero, is authorized for, she can basically play the parts of both good cop/bad cop in that routine, with the threats representing the bad cop: a valid tactic for scaring criminals into cooperating with the more good cop options presented. So while she threatens as a 'bad cop', she will be respectful and nice and gentle when giving alternatives, as the good cop. This tactic, however controversial it may be, is also generally allowed for one simple reason above all others: it's actually pretty dang effective at producing tangible results. Namely...people who Whitney just blindly beats up have a 90% remission rate: they'll fall straight back into crime, shrugging the beating off and getting right back into it. (This, incidentally, is one reason why Ruby's rogues mostly keep getting away with it.) Repeated beatings don't send the needed message. What they learn is that they can get away with being a criminal and only receive a minor thrashing and if unlucky some jail time they quickly get out of. While she tries to talk the criminals down before needing a fight, most don't accept that, either, because criminals talk the language of violence more than any other. So...criminals she threatens with violence have less than 10% remission. That's because it's one thing to be beaten up and not realize how lucky you are. It's quite another to have it described, in thorough detail, exactly how the heroes are HOLDING BACK on you, and the only reason you live is because of their morals, and the only reason you aren't given crippling life-long injuries is that most of the heroes prefer not to resort to that tactic, as much as they may joke about inflicting it. Whitney has developed a specialize routine of explaining exactly what she can, legally be within her right, to inflict on them, if they resist...and this is not a pleasant list. Break legs? Totally fine. Cause LiterallyShatteredLives on their hands, permanently freezing their nerve endings so that they can never regenerate and never use an artificial hand? Totally fine. As a professional superhero, she is authorized to act with whatever measures she deems necessary for the situation. Of course she has to answer for her acts after they are done, but short of killing a person (even then, that'd most likely just be a slap on the wrist) or causing wanton destruction or hurting civilians, she's probably in the clear. This makes sense, since part of her icy cold demeanor is distance. Underneath the mask, we know that she's a nice, compassionate, caring woman. However, while wearing the mask, she is a cold, distant ice queen, who holds almost no emotions. There's also something called "Cold-Blooded Torture", which she happens to be proficient in, or so she claims. (She wouldn't actually, but the villains don't need to know that.) It's no wonder that most villains get scared straight--they usually don't think about the consequences after being beaten up, but when their potential fate is described, in crystal clear detail, without a hint of bluffing (Whitney is perfectly willing and able to follow through on her threats), they quickly learn how merciful getting beaten up actually is. Of course, while this tactic is frowned upon, and as a result, is not officially in the rulebook, it is SO widely known and popularly used, that it has been given the closest thing to official status it can hold without having official status. Naturally, this means it has developed a name. That name? ...The ONLY name acceptable for a department mostly staffed by nerds: To The Pain. Because the few people in the department who aren't Tropers (it's practically their job!) are probably still geeky enough to have watched and/or read The Princess Bride. I also owe you that description I made for the Air element on Friday. On Thursday, I talked a little (yes, that was 'little', at least for me) about why Darkness is so absurdly powerful. However, Air is actually not that far behind, and is arguably just as strong in the hands of its more skilled practitioners. It's certainly not that far behind overall, at the very least. Why? Simple: because Air is everywhere. It represents everythingness, to contrast Darkness's nothingness. But it is not tangible: Air is abstract. While it covers things like oxygen and gasses, Air's got a huge market on basically being 'what fills space', 'empty space', and similar definitions similar to darkness, giving great overlap. It is a huge conceptual element, dealing with all the things that exist in the background, out of sight, out of mind, yet driving life as we know it. However, Air takes things even further than Darkness. For starters, Air is one of the strongest elements of change, right up there with Fire, Water, and Earth. (Fire is change through destruction, Earth is change by growth, Water change by flow/stream/order, and Air is change through Chaos.) Because Air is the most random, it is the hardest to predict. In fact, Air users literally defy probability, redefining the boundaries expected of them. Air also covers one of the fundamental forces of the universe: the weak force. This is every bit as broken as it sounds: being able to give off radiation, being a near-limitless source of energy, being able to become a nuclear bomb, and also, being able to become intangible, all are abilities loosely tied to that ability. ...What makes Air truly dangerous, though, is that it can also manipulate a second fundamental force. While Air shares this power with Earth (this is the only area where there's a duality in their elements, in spite of them being considered opposites, in contrast to Light/Dark and Fire/Ice which have a ton of overlap), Air holds control over Gravity. Air users are able to freely nullify it, even able to make it as if fighting in a vacuum if it so pleased them, but they can also magnify it, crushing enemies. So...we've got an invisible, intangible, random element of limitless possibilities. When it comes to countering physical-based fighters, no element is better suited to the task than air. Heck, Air has via cyclones the power to suck attacks: this does not work on all magic, and can only possibly effect four elements (and even then, not really concretely), those being fire/water/earth/energy, but when it comes to absorbing PHYSICAL attacks, it surpasses even Darkness. In short, Air can do almost anything Darkness can: teleportation (air is everywhere), invisibility, intangibility, vast magical energy, becoming super-tough, and so on and so forth, all while being incredibly random and thus, hard to predict and MUCH harder to counter. There's more to that, too. Whereas Darkness techniques usually have a Light counter and/or equivalent, aside from the aforementioned gravity-sharing with Earth, Air has no opposite. Yes. That means exactly what you think it means: there is no known way to counter Air opponents. While there are equivalent moves in other elements if you're creative, the Air user will hold a more instinctive, natural mastery of it, because Air is an element that takes almost zero energy to use and little skill to employ. The power of an Air user, as a result, goes unchecked...except by virtue of the Air user themselves. Let me put it to you this way: there's a reason Hannah, the nicest of the Riders, got Air: because in anyone else's hands, Air has billions of ways to cause suffering and/or death, more than even notorious elements like Darkness. Worse, it can be done accidentally, too, so the only people who should use it are those who use it with restraint like she does. The main reason there aren't many Air villains, though, is because these powers have a downside: inherent to the element is randomness and chaos. Villains with an agenda, therefore, cannot use the element to its most deadly effectiveness. They simply lack the control, because there is no such thing as an Air Master; it is literally impossible to tame the element of Air. Air users get good at understanding their techniques, and at learning to follow what they want to do. But Air as an element is more, "Magic, do something!" than "Magic, do this!". Sure, the occasional insane air user presents an incredible threat, because they will cause massive destruction with their abilities, but said insane air users have a short life because they often end up killing themselves by virtue of them being insane and doing something no sane air user would. Still, Air is one of the most fearsome elements to be up against. It's great to have as an ally (though Air users tend to be too scatterbrained to be effective solo heroes: the nature of the air element means that the more effective you are at using it, the more random your thoughts tend to be, thus, the most effective air users need someone else in their lives to help balance them out and give them a firm planting in reality, usually someone of the earth element), powering up allies and being great at doing exactly what's needed at exactly the right time, but it's also the element to most be afraid of: A villain who is sane enough not to let themselves die, yet also whimsical enough to let the element run free, can be a foe so dangerous that few heroes stand a chance against them. (Think what would happen if The Joker got superpowers, and you've got a fair idea of what a lethal opponent an air villain can be.) Soyeah. That's air. Light/Darkness balance each other, and hold immense power over the world. Fire/Ice balance each other, and hold immense power over the world. Water holds immense importance to life, and deals with technical skill rather than raw power more than almost any other element. Energy holds immense power over the world. Earth is representative OF the world. (Next time, might talk about it.) Air holds immense power over everything. Now granted, no element is inherently stronger than another. They are all held in check by self-limitations, difficulty of mastery, counters of other elements, overlap, and many other factors. While Light/Darkness are considered the two strongest overall, and Fire/Ice are close behind, Water's skill partially lies in how much it's underestimated, and Earth users basically "strong as the situation requires". That being said, Energy has the potential to be the strongest thanks to just how much it covers. Air, however, is equally as strong a potential. I'm having trouble, though, because extreme apathy is setting in. Actually, more like lethargy. I just...feel an utter lack of drive right now, to do...anything. Even games. I simply...am not in the mood for it, am feeling like not doing it, like just do nothing, go to sleep, and be done with it.
I hate that. Hate it. You know how self-destructive that feeling can get if I let it take control? Extremely. So I have to fight it. I have to overcome it, to persevere, to actually do something, but that's going to be incredibly hard and I'd rather be in a situation where I wouldn't have to need this. ...Heck, even my own subconscious is telling me I'm inadequate. When I went to bed on Friday, I had a dream about ComicFury. Some user there was praising me, saying something along the lines of, "I wouldn't be here (still) if it weren't for Ranger", and my response to that was, in the dream, more or less: "I'm sorry that I can't do more, that there wasn't anything extra I could have done" even though I was being praised, as if my dream was telling me that I don't think I'm worthy of praise. (Today, I also had a dream while napping, in which my family was basically laughing at me, and not in the good way.) And frankly, maybe I'm not. But...uhg, just gotta...move on with things I guess. Part of tackling the problem can be doing as simple as this blog, in fact. So I'm writing this as effectively a wake-up call. I've got a lot of things I need to do. I'm still averaging one page a day, but right now, it's via finishing one page (which I did yesterday) and then half-finishing the next page (which I did during anime), but not quite finishing it for whatever various reason. So now, I need to finish yesterday's page, do at least one more page, preferably two or three. I'm not going to let a moment of mental weakness stop me from working on something I'm so passionate about. That moment of mental weakness can destroy me, and my dreams, if I let it. But by beating it and finishing my art stuff, I'll not only have completed something I've worked towards, I'll also have overcome something that is clearly depression in the works. Which makes Red Hood Rider all the more important to work on, now. It's become my rock in life, so to speak. I come back to it, thinking of it, and it makes me happy. It makes me stronger. It makes me able to deal with the strong feelings of dysphoria I've been feeling today. (Something I could go into detail about, but...today...I don't want to. Not out of apathy/lethargy. Just...as much mental strength as I may be building up, I don't have the amount needed to talk about something that painful, at least right now, today.) I know it's a comic. It's something that will never be profitable to me, it's something that will never be quite as good as I see in my head, it's something which I will have to work hard on for years and years all for something that probably won't even be paid attention to. As much as I've envisioned and dreamed my comic getting hyped up...I've seen barely a nibble when it comes to interest for it, which has set my expectation low. Like...my comic is now public, so people can subscribe to it on ComicFury. In spite of a few Coming Soon update/announcements, I have a grand total of two subscribers...one, who subscribed to my last comic and might be there purely for loyalty (I vaguely remember helping them out a few years back), the other, a friend who frequents the strudel and was around for the creation of the site. That's it. Despite me making it in my sig for both my main account and my alt account. Art-wise, on the site I play mafia on, there aren't people commenting on what previews I've given there, either--and I know people read that thread, and comment on things they like, so it's a fair assumption that by me having posted something and a great amount of time passing with no comments on it, that people simply...don't care about it. So...that's greatly, greatly discouraging. But...it's my comic. Always has been. I've been upfront about this from the very beginning: it's a comic made for ME. (Heck, that's even something in my ComicFury profile, which I just recently realized.) Ultimately, while I'd love it if others enjoyed my work, my comic is meant for me. It's my expression. It's my outlet. It's my way of venting. So I'll keep going. ...By which, I mean, "definitely not, but I don't want to admit that".
So tonight's family night. Family night usually begins at 6 exactly on Saturdays. It's 5 PM. Can't write a blog post lengthy as planned. Even if I could cover everything, I would have no time for art. And that page last night? Didn't quite finish it. Got it mostly done, but I was feeling too tired to draw Gary twice, when Gary is not a character I am yet comfortable drawing without references. So not only do I have a need to finish that page, but I ALSO have a need to finish ANOTHER page. Need I mention that, this being Saturday, it's anime night as well? 'Cause that means I'll be interrupting family night to go watch anime. Meaning, effectively, I have one hour to finish one page and draw another. Because drawing pages during anime is...choppy. So, uh. Yeah. Leaving to work. Lots happened today, family night postponed until tomorrow I believe, but it's late and I'm on one of the hardest pages in the chapter to draw which needs to be drawn to maintain so much as my minimum of once a day meaning no blog tonight; I'll post my long blog tomorrow.
Know how I said I'd get fatigued from my job sooner or later? Yeah, well, today was the first day that hit me hard. I was fine when I went to work. I was fine coming home from work. I was fine when on the desktop after work. But after I ate supper, my body immediately crashed, taking a 2+ hour nap...and I'm still tired after it.
Not fun. Also not productive. I wrote a song today, and wanted to sing it and post it, but I'm not feeling like doing that tonight anymore. Heck, I barely feel like doing Red Hood Rider, even though I really need to get it done. ...Speaking of Red Hood Rider, though...I do have a lot to talk about, there. For a start, I thought it worth mentioning: know how Ruby is based off of me? Yeah, well...I can SO much feel her inside of me that, full time now, I could swear I'm wearing her fingerless gloves. As in, I get a strong phantom sensation of their existence, actually feeling them as if tangible. Her bracelet, too. (Not to mention, not having a flat chest.) Though the main purpose I came here for was to talk about the element of Darkness. I've talked about ice, fire, water, energy, and light before and why they're so ridiculously strong (maybe not in as much detail as possible, maybe scattered, but enough to give you the general idea at least), but even among the elements, Darkness is considered one of the strongest. For starters, this can be traced back to all the things darkness can be defined as...like, "everywhere Light is not"--and when you think about it, the VAST majority of space is, by that definition, of the Darkness element. It also covers Dark Matter and Dark Energy, too. Not to mention, black holes. As a further boost, Darkness covers the Void, nothingness, and similar concepts, making it a tool for dimensional transportation AND a way to shut down imagination-based powers. (Or, alternatively, by removing Darkness, enhancing them.) It can remove or reveal things at will, making it good for investigations and obscurities alike. All of these are strong abilities. The ability to shift forms is another one frequently included. Shifting forms, shifting realms, shifting locations, and the aforementioned ability to interfere with the vast majority of powers by forming a strong blockade. These things make darkness valuable. ...But as if that wasn't enough, Darkness is one of only four elements (the others being Water, Ice, and Light) to be able to mimic other elements. In the case of darkness, this is via 'shadowing' them. Unlike the other three, though (all of which involve 'mirroring'), shadowing an element can make the attack STRONGER than the original. Incidentally, this is why most "mirror matches" involve darkness in some manner: to emphasize that fighting original-to-original is a BAD idea. ...Also, an extension of the above is a related ability: Light, Energy, Fire, and Air all have the ability to augment other elements, via various methods, but none have quite the same ease as Darkness does, because with Light, it's an attempt at combining; with Energy/Fire/Air, it's the Energy/Fire/Air user giving as much of their power as they can channel. But with Darkness, the darkness user is basically absorbing, augmenting, enhancing, and shadowing the second element all at once: black fire, black lightning, black ice, you get the idea, they are attacks that are primarily darkness, with the second element boosting it exponentially. Furthermore, Darkness is one of only TWO elements capable of draining an opponent. (Admittedly, Ice holds power over entropy, thus, can remove energy from someone, but the ice-user does not inherit this removed energy. Similarly, Water users hold the power of redirecting energy, able to remove it from someone and place said energy elsewhere, but they cannot themselves actually absorb it.) Unlike Energy, though (the other element that can drain), which requires first draining the attack in its entirety, then processing it in its entirety, all before countering by unleashing it all...Darkness GROWS, being able to lash out while still consuming. So as it eats an attack, it will still be itself attacking, with the attack growing stronger the more it is fed. This, understandably, is why yin-yang bombs are so powerful. Darkness combined with Light, just like Fire with Ice, produces not only a strong symbiotic relationship, but ALSO that very strong symbolism relationship. So it's no wonder why so many creatures are of the night, and why so much of the occult is symbolized by Darkness, and why it's a favorite of villains everywhere. This holds relevance to Ruby, too: early-on, she uses a SUPER-advanced Darkness attack, bare-handed (so not focused in a weapon at all, and not at a range, point blank where she can feel the full feedback), and THEN she turns it into a yin-yang bomb. Understandably, this is not without consequence: she suffers SEVERE magical fatigue as a result. It is, however, what eventually gives her the idea for the Supernova Shot! (Also called the Sunburst shot, which I've referred to as a nova shot.) But more about Darkness. No matter what, Darkness users prefer fighting in the night. Regardless of what sort of powers they have, the symbolic boost is enough in of itself to justify fighting at night. (This is also why Blood Masters tend to work during the day, by the way: because there is no clan that so utterly devastated them as much as their war with the shadow master clan, masters of the darkness element. In a fight between two equally-skilled masters, power level becomes irrelevant, and usually the winning factor is whoever suffers magical fatigue first--usually, the shadow master, but during the night, it could be the blood master.) However, if fighting during the day, a darkness master, a true darkness master, has several options: 1--fight in an environment where light is taken away, e.g. knocking out power to a building, collapsing the entrance to a cave. 2--Use elements of the darkness element that aren't significantly impacted by the daylight, such as the void. This is what the vast majority of users do, as it takes little skill. 3--Use elements of the darkness element that are actually enhanced by the daylight...namely, manipulating shadows. (Naruto alone shows why that's effective, though plenty of other things demonstrate the power of shadows, too.) This is the second-most-used. 4--Spend a significant amount of energy creating darkness, veiling the area in black. This is not often used, because it's a waste of energy for a small tactical advantage. However... 5--Use loophole abuse to create darkness without draining energy. This is an advanced technique which only a few people across the world know how to do, but basically, it involves chaining concepts of darkness together. Starting with the definition: "During day, there is light. Light is an absence of darkness." This transitions into the next idea: "Darkness is defined as the absence of something. So the absence of darkness is still an absence, therefore, darkness." It's a paradox, yes, but that's why it's called loophole abuse. Final step in the process? "Darkness is also about consumption, and I hereby consume the absence of darkness". Which...creates darkness. Does it make sense? Only vaguely. It's bending the rules a lot...but it works, allowing the darkness user to veil the battlefield in darkness for free. Said darkness will last until purposefully removed, though it's worth noting that this is effectively natural darkness, the same as could be found during the night--unlike the created darkness, natural darkness is effected by artificial light sources, such as magical spells or things as simple as flashlights, weakening (but not removing) it. So in that way, it's not quite as good as the created darkness, but it's a whole HECK of a lot less exhaustive on the caster. I should probably mention at this point that one of the most prominent users of darkness are vampires, as is known already. While most vampires don't know how to use their darkness powers to their maximum, what makes vampires particularly lethal foes is that their darkness powers have no predefined limits. While their ability to use it during the day is restricted--therefore making them not as strong at using it as a natural darkness user would be--they also are stronger than a strictly-darkness-user, because while advanced darkness users can do all of the abilities mentioned above (plus removing senses, let's not forget that one), most darkness users can't, for whatever various reason, reach that level. ...In contrast? There is absolutely nothing stopping a vampire from mastering every aspect of darkness. Plus, darkness users are prone to aging...but vampires are ageless. They have all of eternity to build their skills. Heck, Dale even pre-power-up is able of causing a rain of darkness arrows, a full armies' worth in a continuous volley of death. Furthermore, vampires have skills outside of darkness, making them not just monotonous fighters. Another deciding factor: darkness magic is still magic at its base core. Vampire powers are partially classified as magical, but they are also partially not inherently magical...meaning that vampires are able to use the majority of their powers in situations where anti-magic is employed. Darkness-users...well, most can't. In a battle between the best human darkness user and the strongest darkness-practitioning vampire, the vampire will always win, because even during the daylight when the vampire is at its weakest and the darkness user still has abilities related to darkness that can be used, said abilities are rarely enough to compensate for the age, experience, and skills the vampire has. Basically, while situationally, darkness users are stronger than vampires, vampires as a whole are considered one of the strongest creatures of the night for good reason. They're ridiculously hard to kill. (Heck, Dracula survived the events of the book bearing his name, in spite of all the humans' efforts to the contrary. He was defeated, sure, but he didn't die.) Magical powers make them easy to beat up. Skilled humans can defeat them in combat. They suffer MASSIVE casualties during wars, because regardless of era, human weapons of war are still capable of killing a vampire, albeit with difficulty, if the vampire is unable to regenerate from the damage inflicted. Every time vampires have been exposed, in fact, prior to modern times (by which point, nobody cares anymore) they have been systematically wiped out because while vampires are undoubtedly superior to humans, they're not universally skilled enough to avoid being killed off. So to put it another way: Vampires > most magical things > the human masses > most vampires. Vampires one-on-one beat almost anything, but when pitted against hundreds, they're not so much of unstoppable killing machines as to be invincible. Skilled vampires can still survive, but most die off in those attacks. However, said vampire survivors grow stronger as a result, becoming even more powerful against the magical beings they are likely to face. Soyeah. That's the world of Red Hood Rider on darkness, more or less. A ridiculously strong element, near-limitless in power, situationally one of the strongest elements, and one inherent to some of the strongest creatures in the Rubyverse, vampires. It's not overwhelmingly the strongest element, since there is balance in the universe and whatever Darkness can do, Light can either also do or can provide some counter to, but it's certainly the easiest element to use, and also the element with some of the greatest versatility depending on creativity. This is yet one more reason why the Rider of Darkness is The Chosen One: their vast power can shape the world.
I'll leave the typo as-is because I don't really edit past blogs like that, especially over something minor like that, butyeah. Obviously, my last blog post was made with the intention of reading January 5th, 2016, the day it was written even though I posted it 30 seconds ago. (I figured out fairly recently that you can edit the display date of blog posts, too. Woulda been helpful to have known that back in December, but oh well.)
Anyway, a funny thing happened today when I was working on Red Hood Rider. See, I really wanted to set out the EXACT chronology of the first season. The events are more or less set, but I wanted them written down in my notes rather than vaguely on my blog. Problem is...I had no clue where said notes on my blog were. So I had to site search my own blog, and in the process, I found a new episode I had forgotten that I was planning to write! It took me a while, but eventually, I was able to find what I was looking for...and it turned out to be...on the exact date that I stopped last time I was actively writing things from my blog down: April 16th. Whoops! Ah, well. Anyway, I got the episodes written down--still haven't quite figured out which rogues are featured when, though. See, I choreograph more or less the important bits of the fight: key dialog, key events, what this causes, and so on and so forth. ...But mostly from the perspective of the hero. I don't really think about the villains that much. I know that Sally in episode 2 fights one particular rogue of Ruby's, but she's also scripted to have an earlier fight with a villain, and that villain could be...literally any of the 20 or so rogues I have. (Well, almost any.) I also know when there aren't rogues involved (it happens a few times), and also I know things like when Jonathan is fought. But aside from a couple of fights, almost entirely, the script is such that they could fight any. I just need to figure out which rogues make the most sense, and also which rogues I need to introduce as actually being rogues. I don't want them to ultimately be dummied out such that they never make any appearance at all, after all. Each rogue has their own backstory and reason for fighting Ruby. Plus, there's a few villain team-ups which'd feature them. Would be quite embarrassing if I had a villain team-up where a rogue appears that hasn't been fought on-screen before, because I'd have to explain that, yes, they're a frequent, I just neglected to schedule a fight with them prior to the villain team-up. A final note about the planning is...I actually need to remember a few details. For instance, in my notes, I have "Day Off", in which Ruby takes the day off, and I have "Ruby's vacation", in which, Ruby takes the day off. They used to be distinct episodes with distinct plots. The problem is...I only mentally memorized one. So...still trying to figure out what the other one was. But I digress. I got page 11 done yesterday, albeit messily. Took me an hour to do, was tired, rushed, and wanting to go to bed. But since we won't be going to dance tonight (or tomorrow for that matter), I'm hoping for 2-3 pages tonight and tomorrow. Also, worth mentioning: while unrelated to Red Hood Rider, I did do something yesterday that I wanted to share. I wrote a song. I haven't named it yet, but here it is.
So...that's about everything I can think of to say. Mostly from here, it's just a matter of working.
So I'm gonna post this tomorrow, but basically: did a lot of stuff, don't have time right now to talk though, because I wasted time (reading my own blog), and I don't have page 12 done yet.
So...work. Hopefully done in less than an hour. So I had my counseling appointment today. My counselor noted that I had a different feeling about me, essentially, which makes sense, given this weekend. He basically noted that I seemed to have a sense of hope, that I was more cheerful, and that I was thinking about things differently. All true, and all giving me further confidence that, yes, I'm going down the right path, smartly, intentionally.
...Of course, while this is certainly good news, still got to do work today, which won't exactly be fun. The first day back after a break never is, and this is going to be a late shift. The shift is such that there won't be much events in the pool, but general swim will probably be strong enough to be annoying. This is also a shift that it's been half a year at least since I was last on, so I'm a bit rusty on the protocol for the night. Basically, I have to figure out everything from scratch again, thanks to a lack of familiarity with the everything for the shift. I still stand by my statement, too. This shift might be different from my others, but I feel like I'm going to be lifeguarding TOO much, especially at the same exact time. Sure, familiarity with the shift allows for me to competently handle routine tasks for that shift, but it also breeds conditions ripe for disaster--namely, because it's SO monotonous, and I'm doing it SO much, my performance as a lifeguard is going to suffer. I'm going to have a hard time focusing and being on top of the job, because I'm going to be stuck doing the same exact thing 32 or so times. (Four days a week, about 8 weeks.) And while today's shift is at a different time, it's still going to suffer from job fatigue. While not AS monotonous, I'm still working way above the number of hours I wanted. (I wanted no more than a day's worth, which would be about 12 hours maximum.) I like lifeguarding. I don't like lifeguarding for THAT many hours. It's simply...so much of a drain on my life. I need to guard less to grow more. But I will endure. I won't quit the job, and I'll do what I can not to fail. If I end up making a mistake, then I should be able to muster up the courage to flat-out tell my boss that I'm working more hours than I feel I can handle as a guard, and that if they want me to work at full capacity, they should have me work the amount of hours I requested. That being...one day. Not six. Or in short: quality over quantity. I'm human. I'm not a perfect guard, not by far. Heck, I've got a lot of flaws as a guard, even though I seem to do okay overall. So I wouldn't necessarily become a model lifeguard, but I'd definitely be able to do my job effectively. As-is, I'll try. I'm not going to intentionally sabotage my guarding. It's a job, a duty, an obligation, thus, I have to give it my full. But realistically, my "full" now over this many hours is going to be less than my full if I was working less, because I get exhausted. I get tired. I get fatigued. I know how I work. The greater amount of stress placed on me (and, for all the love I have of the job, lifeguarding does induce stress), the more my performance suffers. So the more I'm scheduled to work...the worse my work is going to be. Anyway, about now would be the time I SHOULD be doing mafia stuff, but right now, I want to save it for night. Instead, I'm going to spend the hour or so I have before I need to leave on drawing. Why? Simple: math. Assuming I maintain the rate of one page a day (no guarantee I do), then...well, page ten today (the fourth), gets page 22 done on the 16th...about the time I said I wanted to start releasing Red Hood Rider. If I was releasing Red Hood Rider in sketch, black-and-white form, no problem, but I envisioned it in color. So I need to get two pages in whenever I can. Now, I still intend to keep my promise of balancing my life. So I'll still do my mafia stuff, as I said I would, today. I just will do it AFTER lifeguarding, not before. (Not like I'd have the time to finish the mafia stuff anyway.) Soyeah. Gonna get to work, now. Got lots to do, not much time. |
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