Day 17: Cannot, Can Not, and Can't

This is a part of the America English Langue that I've always thought was weird. Can't is a commonly used contraction for the word "can" and "not". Normally contractions are just replacements for the two words that are normally in that place in the sentence. However can and not are different in the US. The phase, "I can't do this." is grammatically correct while "I can not do this." is incorrect. Instead in the United States uses cannot as one word. I have no idea why this is the case, but I'd be very curios to find out.

Day 17: Why Ash wouldn't/shouldn't win the Kalos league

I've heard this song and dance many times. "Wow Ash's team is so good this time!" "I know it. This time Ash will win the league." Blah blah blah blah blah. I've been part of the Internet fandom from about half way through the Sinnioh anime, so let me tell you these thoughts of Ash actually winning a league are nothing new. But I'm not here to talk about the likelihood of Ash winning the league. I'm here to talk about why Ash shouldn't win the league.

I have two major reasons why I believe Ash shouldn't win the Kalos league. The first reason is because the villain plot is not complete. It is my opinion that the league should be the last thing in the season. It's the way Ash get's to show just how far Ash has come in in regional journey. If the villain plot isn't over before the league then that means that Ash has not achieved as much yet. What's more if Ash wins the Kalos league then we just won't have time let that settle because then the villain plot will have to be dealt with. Ash winning should be the grand conclusion to a season, not just a part of it.

The second reason is (and this is important) is that Ash has more then 6 pokemon. Ash has 68 pokemon, but as the previews are showing it looks like Ash will only be using his Kalos Pokemon. While their is nothing wrong with that on it's own, Ash shouldn't win like that. Ash's first league victory should be helped by all of his pokemon. Everyone of them should be shown in it. Everyone of them should show that it is important. Every one of them should be their to celebrate their victories. Not just six pokemon.

Dy 16: Yungoos, Pikipek, and Grubbin

These are the three new Pokemon introduced yesterday. I thought I'd give my thoughts on them quickly. Sorry this isn't being more detailed, but I've been spending most of my time planning a trip, and working a future detailed post.

I don't know why but I love Yungoos. Will I catch it? Oh hell yes. Will I use it on my team? Probably not. I've like the early normal types more then most, but not enough to give it a spot on my team.

I am not a fan of the early bug type. The only time this has not been the case was with Scolipied and Leavanny. I love those two. While I won't know until it evolves, I don't like Grubbin on first impression. It seems like it will evolve into an electric type. I can honestly say I'm not really a fan of the idea, but that's probably because I like joltik to much.

I will be getting Pikipek. I love getting the regional bird my first play through of a game. When I don't know what I'll be getting in the long run, the bird is always a nice flyer to have on. I'm also big on the water starters, so having something to deal with grass types is nice. Don't know how good it will be if I end up with Litten, but I'll at least have a way around fighting types.

Day 15: The Sense of Adventure

A friend of mine and I were talking about various D&D campaigns that we wanted to run. We through out some cool ideas, but my favorite was one of his. It was the idea that the campaign would take place in a young world. This world is so young that ruins don't scatter the land. A lot of the creatures that are of magical origins (as in creature races that were created by wizards) have not come around let. I then told him that if I was a character in that game I'd pick a direction, and I'd just sail in that direction until I found land. From there I'd try to start a settlement. He and I loved this idea. I just love the idea of exploring the open world and making it your own. That's one of the reasons why I'm so looking forward to Breath of the Wild.

I've never been that interested in Zelda, but this is the first one in the series that really caught my eye. I know nothing about this aside from the game play trailer, and just from that I'm interested. It is such a beautiful world that I just want to run around and see all that I can. It was that same mentality that caused me to by Xenoblade X. I just wanted to explore Mira, and now I want to explore Hyrule.

Day 14: Kyle Rayner: The Brave and the Bold

I love the show Batman: The Brave And The Bold. It was my first real look into the DC Universe, and loved to showcase the less popular character in the DC universe. It was this idea of looking at the unknown which caused the main Green Lantern to be Guy instead of Hal or John. However, I find it weird that Kyle Rayner didn't show up once. He's my favorite Green Lantern and outside of comics he has only been seen in a episode of Superman and Justice League. Outside of that no one knows him who aren't into comics. I've brought this up mostly to say that Kyle never even gets a cameo. Alan Scott didn't even get that little. Alan was an old man, but he still showed up. I'm just sad my favorite lantern never got the spot light he needed.

Day 13: My problem with Musical (I've work on)

I've been doing theater sense my freshmen year of high school. I did many small parts with my most notable roles being George from "Sorry wrong number", Sam from "The Long Christmas Dinner", and the guard from "12 Angry Men". I however found my calling in theater as a spot light operator. I became so good at it that when the other spot operators graduated I was able to do the work basically by myself. It became a problem however when it was my last semester and litter no one else (not even the teacher) knew how to work it or preform repair. But this is not a time for warm thoughts of old. No this is about why I believe my high school director couldn't produce a good musical to save her life. 

Day 12: One Piece Review

One night back in the second grade my friend Harrison was spending the night at my house. It was a weekend, and I was showing my friend Naruto (this show I liked about ninjas). Normally after Naruto I had to go to sleep, but my parents let me stay up later because I had a friend over. This being the first time I ever staid up to watch TV I really didn't know any of the shows that came on after Naruto, so I had no idea that this show about pirates was about. Thankfully my friend Harrison was there to explain the show to me. Now their is more to this story including my original experience, my rediscovery, and my first time reading the manga, but those are not important for now. What is important is how that story relates to the show itself. One single small event (staying up just a little later) has turned into the first step to me entering one of my top 3 favorite fandom. So without taking up any more time let's dig into One Piece.

Day 11: Log Horizon Review

I've spent about two hours writing and rewriting the opening paragraph of this review. I kept trying open it up by talking about the similar, but more popular show Sword Art Online. At the end of the day I've decided that I really don't like that idea. This show deserves to stand on it's own, and shouldn't be compared to another show to validity it. Log Horizon is a very good show. It really is my second favorite anime of all time, and I feel it is like that even without SAO this show should still be praised. However one of the major aspect of the show are at their best only when they are compared to shows like Sword Art Online and .Hack, so I will be comparing the show to other in only one aspect, but we'll get there. For now welcome to a review of Log Horizon.

Day 10: My Hero Academia Review

I've read and watched a lot of stories about young people learning about what it means to be a hero and what they have to struggle with as being a hero and a teenager. The Spectacular Spider-man was great because it showed just how hard that life can be all alone. Young Justice was great because it showed that no hero, no matter how young, should be underestimated. Young Avengers showed just how hard the adult hero community can push back against young heroes. Avengers Academy showed how an older generation could teach newer generations. I love all of these shows, and when I heard some of the elements from those were in this new show call My Hero Academia I was interested. Now that I have caught up to the manga I can safely say it is my favorite out of all of them.

Day 9: Detective Comics, Action Comics, and Flash Rebirth.

I know today I was going to be talking about an anime again, but that was until I got my comics for the week. Then I knew I had to push everything back to talk about these amazing book. Well to clarify, I still planned to talk about anime today until I read the Flash book, but we'll get to that. For now let's do some rapid reviews of the three books I got this week.

Day 8: Ghost Stories Review

It is a common belief in the western anime community that dubs are an inferior product compared to the original. This is a view that I very much disagree with, but that is still the overall consensus. What I can agree on is that most of the time the dub only really serves to help make a Japanese show accessible to a different language and culture. It rarely adds a thing, and definitely doesn't make it a better show. That is what's so amazing about today's show. Ghosts Stories is a horrible show until you watch the dub. Then somethings magical happens.

Day 7: The Devil is a Part-Timer Review (spoiler-free)

I'm not really an anime fan. Why? It just doesn't really appeal to me. I'm part of the anime club at my college (maybe? I never sign in), so I've been exposed to a lot of different anime. On the whole I just don't enjoy it. I also tend to not enjoy some of the more popular stuff like Attack on Titan (which I feel goes too far in the grim and gritty) and Sword Art Online (which I feel is just a bad show). But I do in fact enjoy anime, so this week I'm going to be counting down my top 5 favorite anime/manga. So let's start of today with the Devil is a Part-Timer.

Disclaimer: This review will be based off of the English dub of the show. I do not care much for subbed anime.

Day 6: 10 Pokémon that Need Evolutions

One of my favorite things about generation 4 was how we got so many new pokémon in the form of evolution. I think one of the big reasons I like it so much is that new evolutions require you to use older Pokémon, but still lead you into new ones, while megas are just the same old one. I would like to see more of these, but I also want to see more new cross generation evolutions aside from eevee. So, here are 10 pokémon I want to have an evolution in Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Day 5: The Newest Starters

Hello fellow fans. I am masterofthez and this is day 5 of the Month of Writing challenge. Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio. For those unaware, these three are the new starters for Pokémon Sun and Moon. I like them all myself, so I don't really know which one I'll get when November comes around. At the moment I'm leaning towards Litten, but that's not what I'm here to talk about today. No, today I'm here to talk about the Pokémon anime and which starter Ash will catch.

Day 4: Beowulf is a Dick

I read Beowulf back in high school, and I didn't like it much. At the time I couldn't really figure out why. The best explanation of my dislike I could create was, "Beowulf fighting Grendel is the story of a tornado uprooting a tree. Why should I care about the tornado? Why should I care about the tree?" I have now read it again, and with more years under my belt I feel I now have a better grasp of the character and why I hate the story. Beowulf is a Dick.

And before I really start, I want to be clear. I'm looking at this story with modern biases. Yes, if I would look at the story in the original Anglo-Saxon culture, this would be a good story. I'm mostly having fun with the story.

First off, his motivations for all of his fighting are very unsympathetic. This part is mostly the fault of the how the story is told. He says he is doing this to protect his allies, but it is also very clear that he is doing it for the glory of the battle. "I just want a good fight," is not a good motivation if you want a likable character. It also doesn't help that the threat of Grendel is only ever told to us, and we the audience never get to hear the details of the attack while it is happening. Then he has the audacity to make fun of one of the surivors of the first Grendel attack by saying it's his own fault that Grendel killed all his people at arms. NOT EVERYONE IS OF GODLY POWER AND CAN FIGHT A SUPER POWERED MONSTER WITH NO WEAPONS, BEOWULF!

Now we move on to the dragon, or as I will call him, The Metaphor for Mental Illness. First off, he has an obsession with a single thing: treasure. This treasure is the only thing that can keep him calm. He is so aware of his treasures that he notices when only one piece is stolen. With just one piece missing, he lashes out, not knowing how to deal with it and having no one around to help. So what does Beowulf do when he learns of this? Does he try and help this suffering creature? Nope. He goes in for the kill.

So I hope we've all learned a valuable lesson today. Beowulf is a Dick.

Day 2: The Alola Region

Earlier today we finally got a look at the full region of Alola. Now, one of the big draws of Pokémon for me is the sense of adventure of going to a never before seen area. As such, I love looking at the overhead view of regions and seeing all of the places I will be exploring. And as such, here are my Top 10 places (in no particular order) that I can't wait to go to in Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Day 1: DC Rebirth

Geoff Johns wrote the story Blackest Night. The story itself was based off of a one-shot Alan Moore wrote which told about the end of the Green Lanterns. In Geoff John's newest work he continues with another idea from Alan Moore, but we will get there. For now, hello fellow fans. I am masterofthez and this is day 1 of the Month of Writing challenge. And today I'm talking about the comic event DC Rebirth and all the various aspects of it. This is going to be fairly long and hold all of the spoilers. Also be warned. This is going to be one of my longer posts.

Month Of Writing

Hello, and welcome to the Month of Writing. This is a challenge I created the summer of 2015 to help my writing skills. I told some of my friends about it, and they said they wanted to try it. So here I am to explain the rules of this challenge.

1. You must post something everyday. 

Because this is only the month of writing, you only have to write a month's worth of posts. But you indeed have to update everyday. If you miss a day then you have lost.

2. You must have a complete thought every day. 

Okay. I'm about go all English professor on you. This challenge does not require you to reach a word count per day. For every post you need to have a complete thought on it. Think about whatever you are about to post, write that down, then think about what you just wrote down. Yes, some of what you write will not be as intellectual as other things you post. I get it. But you still have to have a complete thought written out. 

...and that's it. I really don't have any more instructions after that. You can write on any subject you want. You don't even have to write opinionated articles like me. One of my friends is posting a poem every day. Another friend is writing a comedy sketch every day. I myself will be throwing out ideas for a D&D world I've had in my head for a few years now in preparation for a game in the fall that I'll be running. 

Now if you want to do this challenge all I ask is that you link me your work. I'd love to see other people working on this same concept. Well, that's all for today. See you June 1st.

DC Rebirth Spoiler Talk

Okay people, I learned of a spoiler for the book DC Rebirth that comes out on the 25th. It is the only piece of info I've read about it that was not in a press reveal, and I plan to keep it that way. These are just my thoughts on the book and what may come about from it. This post was originally going to be an idea I had about the new started pokémon, but I'm just so excited for this. So just to be clear, spoilers are below the break.

Update thing!

Hey everyone, Masterofthez here. I just wanted to do a little bit of an update for you people about what to expect now that school is out for myself. First off, I have like 10 half finished posts that I will be completing soon, but I'll be saving those for next month. Why? Because I want to save them for another 30 days of posts. Last year I decided to post something every day on this blog for a whole month. I had a lot of fun doing it, so I think I'll be doing it again, so expect that in the coming days. What can you expect from it? I don't really know, but if I had to guess I'd say mostly Pokémon Sun and Moon stuff and stuff about DC Rebirth. Anyway look forward to that.

Now on the more of a behind the scene news, I now have an editor. My friend 4ntlrice7 (I'll call her Lrice) has agreed to be my editor so things will look more professional around here. She is also allowed to post things here if she wants, so expect to see things from her. So to welcome her to the masterofthez crew (because there is now more than just me, so I can call us that), let's hear a little from her. Take it away Lrice.

(Hello peoples!!! I am super excited to be able to edit my friend's blog. I love grammar. It's great. *squeeks in a mad delight for all things editorial* And my friend is great too. I am honored to contribute to such thoughtful creativity. Hope you guys enjoy his writing.)

So I believe that was all that needed to be covered. Join us next time when I talk about a leak for DC Rebirth. See you then.

The Importance of Recognizing Art

A friend of mine spent most of the weekend making two paintings. Once it was done she texted me, and asked if I wanted to see them. I said yes, just to be polite. I'm not a big painting person, so I really didn't care. I took a cursory look at them and only responded with "Wow. Those look amazing." It was a very generic answer, but it did look impressive. After a while of her not responding (I thought she had seen through my not caring) I took another look at the painting. After studying it for a while, I began to notice subtle details in the two paintings. It moved me. This painting a college student made moved me, and I was just going to ignore it. After some time I gave her a possible title for the paintings and then gave a pretty lengthy analysis about how I came to that title. After a few minutes I got a call from her. . She told me thank you for analyzing her paintings. It sounded like she was crying.

Now why bring this up? My father has never seen the point of my analysis of various TV shows and comics because he doesn't see anything there. That I should really just keep to things with actual depth. My friend's reaction to me talking about her paintings was the perfect reminder for me to why I do this. When you put your heart and soul into a work of art (whether it be music, a short story, or a painting) one of the worst things to happen is to be brushed off. To be basically told that 'Ya, it's fine, but it's not really important or worth looking into. It's not like it has depth.' is something that can sting even more then being told your work sucks. Because being told your work sucks at least means that they looked at it long enough to get an opinion. 

I sadly was almost in the same group of just not caring about art, but I'm glad I took a second look. Because I took that second look, I not only got a great sensation of hope from the images, but I also helped a young woman know that her art touched someone. Hopefully this will allow her to keep creating and keep inspiring emotions.

The Yes/No option

I was hanging out with some friends earlier today and the topic of conversation came to the yes/no option in games. I should clarify I don't mean an actual choice in games. I mean the yes/no option that won't let you continue with the game until you say yes. Once this was brought up the logical question to about, Why would that exist? After thinking about it for a while I think I've come up with two answers.

My Valentine's Pokémon

I love Pokémon Valentine's Day Cards. Because they can be really cleaver, funny, or just sweet.

Pokémon ORAS

And here we go. My final team for now. Once again I have only one Mega in the form of Champ. I honestly struggled with an idea for a name so I went with the generic. Trumpet is named after a nuzlocke comic I read a while ago. Sadly I don't actually remember what the comic is called. If someone could tell me I'd be grateful. Oneova is the favorite I've ever thought of. Of all the zubats in the world mine is One of a kind. Get it? One of a. Oneova. Radar came from me looking at the pokédex. Firefox is a simple name, as is Snow.

Pokémon X

I give you team blue plus Talonflame. I didn't actually notice the color thing until I made this image. I wanted to continue the trend of only using new pokémon from Pokémon White, and I wanted at least one mega. That's basically how the team was formed. For a final note, I did actually have a 6th team member in mind. It was going to be a gen 6 ground type that wasn't Diggerby because that thing is ugly, and that means something to me when I make a team. As it turns out, the ONLY other ground type in generation 6 is a legendary that can only be caught after the main adventure. It's like Sinnoh with Fire all over again.