Avatar of Justice

I feel like Code Geass shares some spiritual similarities with Death Note in that both the main characters have a magic ability that basically lets them rise to positions of power and/or leadership and that both of the characters are of the darker sort (Light is outright bad, Lelouch is certainly arrogant and ruthless enough at times to qualify as bad). Where Code Geass outshines Death Note is that the main characters in Code Geass are well rounded, whereas in the first episode of Death Note, Light became a crazy guy with a God complex without explanation and that was it for his character development. I hope Lelouch ends up being just evil, but it really won't be certain until the show is all said and done. Depending on how Code Geass goes it will probably replace Gundam SEED as my favorite anime. I like the politics, action, and heroics that mecha often provides, what can I say. My apartments mates and I went out and got some Pizza Hut pizzas last night, and sat down to enjoy a baffling, but ultimately awesome episode of the new season. If Lelouch were real, I'd follow him to the death.

Your Gundam summaries don't make sense or seem to have much relevance to the shows you summarize.

Wow, Ramius' voice actress put a little more of herself in this version when you know who bites the bullet.

What confuses me is why these parents aren't...you know...taking their kid to Blockbuster and letting THEM pick the game. My mom was always happy to take me to the video store after school/work on Fridays with her so she could rent a movie for her and dad, and if I wanted one for me, a game. As for whether people are making GOOD game choices, well I could argue Hy Bound that it's people like YOU who are ruining gaming by playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl instead of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core. It's not like you have some awesome card that means the mother should have went with your recommendation.

I was able to just Google this and torrent 2 days ago. I assume it is still working.

I mostly just ignore these Final Fantasy sequel games. FF4's story has stood for over 15 years without one. It'll keep on standing.

Is Epic a public company? If so, they could be sued by their investors for NOT focusing on console games since GoW proved that the profits were much better.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes sounds pretty friggin' epic. I hope it has a lot of politics. Glad to be aware of it. Going to check out the first few episodes...

I used to read the Drizzt books when I was in middle school and high school. I kind of stopped around Sea of Swords when I got out of D&D-style fantasy (fantasy where many of the main characters aren't human). Maybe I should check out the Sellswords books sometime. I always thought Entreri was one of the more interesting characters in the series after The Silent Blade (my favorite of the Drizzt books). I sort of became afraid of continuing to read Drizzt when I heard that Salvatore had retconned Wulfgar and Cattie-brie's ages. At that points it seems like it has became a comic book without pictures.

So, OCR now has a successful anime thread which pleases me. Perhaps we could get a good thread for books going. I'm currently reading The Amber Spyglass, third book of the His Dark Materials series. It looks like it will be the best book in a series that has been entertaining, but not quite as epic as I had hoped it would be. I heard that it was critical of religion when the Golden Compass movie was in theaters so I thought the series would be worth checking out. The religious angle has been interesting so far, and I'm hoping it'll all come together in some awesome fashion. Part of the problem is that I'm not part of the "Young Adult" book market (although at 22 shouldn't I be technically), its target audience. I just finished reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, the guy who will be completing The Wheel of Time in lieu of Robert Jordan. I was pleased, as it was a good fantasy book that has no sequel, prequel, or tangent series to go along with it, contrary to the usual stuff. Sanderson seems like he'll be capable of finishing the Wheel of Time from both the book and the interviews with him I've read. The best book I've read in the past year was The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It's ostensibly about a patricide, but gets into a whole religion versus atheism debate (among a bunch of other stuff). No other book made me think quite as much since Atlas Shrugged, which is funny since they are both by Russian authors, and the authors have the exact opposite views on religion. So....say whatever is on your mind about books.

Only five more weeks until Code Geass R2. Hopefully, it will end with Lelouch reigning on his dark throne as humanity despairs.

There's always this one scene between Reki and Rakka that brings a tear to my eye. Not at the end of the show but close to it.

Man, I can't wait to see a new season of Battlestar Galactica. Adama says "Do it."

I'm on my last semester of college, and I've found it nearly impossible to beat any game of significant length (JRPG's) except during summer and winter break. Because of that, I've been playing shorter games, not because I enjoy them more, but because I actually have time to complete them. I expect to actually have time to play games again once I graduate and get a job. No more being home and having to do garbage for school. I had thought about graduate school seriously for a while, but I just felt like college was preventing me from enjoying things due to worry over tests and such. I can't count how many times there was a concert or a game being released and instead of being able to get hyped up over it, I had to think how I had a test the next day or something. Plus, I've found it hard to pursue personal interests of mine (writing) as long as I have to be concerned about school.

Anyone seen Iria? That's a pretty old anime that was the first anime I saw where I knew it was an anime. It has stood the test of time for me, at least.

I'm currently watching Zeta and enjoying it. I tried out Gundam Victory, but it wasn't going anywhere during the first 10 episodes so I stopped. I've wondered if I stuck with it whether it might actually pick back up. Oh well. Kind of surprised that Code Geass was originally intended to be a 26 episode series. I just can't imagine that since it seems like it was intended to be much longer.

I'm assuming they aren't going to take themselves too seriously. Especially if it based off the old show instead of DBZ.

So has any anime actually changed the way you've thought about anything? I sort've feel alone in the cold here.

Are you even talking about SEED? I'm not aware of any mechs in it that have a jolly roger on it. That'd be odd as the SEED mobile suits are usually just solid colors without designs. Gundam SEED is my favorite anime (and 2nd favorite work of fiction) so I of course refute your entire view. I do find it interesting that you accuse the characters of being whiny but are an Evangelion fan. That's the show where I see people constantly bash the main character for being whiny, which I'm not really one of. SEED is actually an influence in my daily life and my foreign policy views. If I'm pondering whether something would be morally acceptable for a country to do in response to the actions of another, I usually think "Would Kira and Lacus approve?" as they are the most moral, pure, and noble characters that I'm aware of in all of the books, games, movies, and television shows I've experienced. As for the conversations in Gundam Wing, I cared about the conversations. My circle of friends and I hardly ever have a time where we get together and DON'T discuss a)The problems with humanity b)How to solve them c)Whether war is a viable solution d)Whether democracy or tyranny is the best way to achieve change No seriously. We do this. As for the plot itself, what more do you want? It's got political intrigue and war.

http://www.liebreich.com/LDC/HTML/Opinion/Iraq/Breach.html From Shakespeare's Henry V where Henry is getting his men ready for combat.

I'm typically not a fan of "endless" series like Naruto, but Claymore was one show I wished they had just kept making more and more of and kept going with the manga. I didn't really get into until around episode 5, but after that I loved it. Because the manga isn't over, the TV show ended up having a weak ending, I thought.

One new show that may potentially become a new favorite is Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, whose 2nd season is going to be airing in the Spring. The major reason it's good (and different) is that the main character starts out with noble intentions but is going down the path of evil as he leads a rebellion against an Empire. For those of you who are Death Note fans, it might remind you of Light, except whereas Light just becomes evil at the end of the 1st episode with his talk of being the "God of the New World," the main character of Code Geass (Lelouch) actually develops over time into someone who is bad. It also helps that all the other major characters are not flat and you have a feel for why they are doing what they are doing. Yeah, most anime is cookie cutter. Especially now that so much of the new stuff is either based off of dating games or is harem crap. I mean really, how many shows can you make about some dude living in a house with 5 girls or some guy who comes back to some town after losing his memory of a bunch of stupid girls that used to know him. Out of the 10-15 big name shows that get fansubbed every year, I usually only follow 2 or 3. I've never understood why so many people are enamored with Cowboy Bebop. It's pretty episodic, and I personally never could really relate to the characters. The storyline just didn't seem all that compelling.

Has the file size limit been increased since OCR's inception? If not, it seems really lame to me that a limit created at a time when dial-up users probably outnumbered broadband users hasn't been changed to be consistent with the times. It really sucks to be listening to one of the longer mixes and to hear artifacts because of the limit. I hear artifacts at 128 kbps and once you get into lower than that its just....blah. Sure, I guess the people who made long mixes with the current rule would feel a bit screwed if the file size got increased, but why hold back for a few bruised egos and hurt feelings? If it has been increased, ignore the above rant.

I'd like to recommend two bands that do concept albums/songs First: The Protomen http://www.theprotomen.com Their only album (2nd one is on the way) is an epic retelling of Mega Man. Yes, Mega Man. In a dystopian future, Dr. Wily rules the masses. However, Dr. Light builds Protoman to free mankind. When Protoman is defeated and destroyed, and no one raises a hand to assist him, Dr. Light builds Mega Man and tells him to not get caught up in Protoman's fight. Mega Man then struggles to decide whether he can save mankind or not. The music is great, and you need to see them live if you ever get the chance. Second: Symphony X Symphony X is symphonic power metal. They have a song that is a metal retelling of The Odyssee and a concept album that is a metal retelling of Milton's Paradise Lost. Cool shit.

I don't really consider price an issue on games. If you don't feel like paying $50-60 for a game, just wait a while for the price to go down. I don't know about anyone else, but I have a huge backlog of games to play, so by the time I actually get to what just came out today the price should've gone down. I generally only make exceptions for Final Fantasy and Guilty Gear.