Showing posts with label underworld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label underworld. Show all posts

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Undead-teen Romances

You know what I hate more than undead-teen romances? Me neither! Especially Twilight! It makes me want to puke! Where do I even begin with the things I hate about it? How about the writing and general quality? All I have to say about that is that the terrible fan fictions written by people who can barely spell are probably no worse. Then there's the complete lack of accuracy to what those creatures are supposed to be? Vampires do not sparkle. Let me say that again. VAMPIRES DO NOT SPARKLE. When they are exposed to sunlight, they scream in pain as their flesh burns away, until all that's left is a pile of ash. Also, they prey on humans. They don't spare them based on just their feelings. Sure, there have been instances when a vampire and a human become allies, or even lovers, but it always begins with the vampire having a good reason not to kill the human, then things just kind of work out for the two of them. For example, in Underworld, Seline meets Michael because the Lycans were targeting him because as she later finds out, he's a descendant of the father of the original vampire and the original werewolf. But anyway, there are several valid types of vampire. I'll name a few. My favorite is the one I call the predator vampire. They look fairly human, but with longer slightly limbs, plus razor sharp teeth and claws and very dark eyes. Their standard M.O. is to savagely rip people apart. Probably the oldest type is the elegant vampire. These are usually European, wear long cloaks, and are very elegant. They have powers like shapeshifting, or turning into smoke, and usually sneak behind their victims before biting into their necks. Also, there's the modern vampire. Modern vampires look almost identical to humans unless you look closely at their teeth and sometimes their eyes. They use guns, swords, or pretty much any weapon available to them in battle, but usually just drink the blood from their victims' necks. These three types are the most common, but some franchises have their own slightly different take on vampires, most of which are valid. Sparkling vampires are not. My main objection is to the depiction of vampires, but don't think that the werewolves are off the hook. In my experience with movies, video games, comic books, etc. there are two main types of werewolf. The lunar werewolf most likely sees lycanthropy as a curse, and changes involuntarily when there's a full moon and only when there's a full moon. There's also the type that sees lycanthropy as a gift and only changes at will. The ones in Twilight are pretty similar to the second category, so I can't get too mad at them for that. What I can get mad at is similar to what makes me angry about the false vampires, which is the implication that werewolves see humans as anything other than food. The worst part of a chick flick with vampires and werewolves in it is that it proves we live in a world where that can exist. The second worst things is that it's giving young impressionable minds false ideas about what vampires and werewolves are. Every time I hear someone utter the phrase "team Jacob" or "team Edward," I want to punch them in the face. I don't, mostly because our civilization is dominated by rules, most of which are based on a philosophy that advises against doing that kind of thing, but I want to. And just when I thought I could be happy that Twilight is over, I saw a trailer for a new movie. Only the concept for this one is even more idiotic. Want to guess? I'll give you a hint: what sort of undead creature do you think is least likely to be in a romantic situation? A zombie, right? So guess what the plot of the movie Warm Bodies is? A freakin' zombie falls in love with a teenage girl. The zombie is about her age, so it's not creepy in that sense, but the whole point of a zombie is that the person is dead, but their body is still moving. There's nothing left in the brain except motor functions and very basic instincts. But at least we have an awesome TV show about zombies, so I'm not bothered too much by the existence of this movie. But as far as vampires go, there needs to be at the very least one really good vampire movie that comes out in the near future to atone for the abomination that isTwilight. Werewolves too, but vampires got the most abuse from that series, so their need is more urgent. That is all.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Skyrim + Dawnguard = Skooma

If you're one of those arrogant PC gamers who looks down their nose at other platforms, then 360 players getting Dawnguard first serves you right. But chances are, you're not, so if you lack a 360, are a reasonable person, and want Dawnguard, you have my sympathy. But anyway: As some of you know, it wouldn't be entirely unfair to call myself a recovering Skyrim addict. Dawnguard is not helping. I pretty much just stopped playing for a while, but I picked it up again right before I got the Dawnguard dlc, and now I'm playing it kind of a lot, but it's so cool. If you side with the vampires like I did, you revive a vampire not unlike Selene from Underworld from a kind of stasis using blood, not unlike in Underworld, then become a vampire lord not unlike the one from Underworld Evolution. But also you can get other powers like turn into a swarm of bats, summon a gargoyle, turn into mist, and vampiric grip, wich is essentially force choke. So you have some of the powers of Marcus Corvinus, classic Dracula and Darth Vader. Plus you can feed on people while they're awake now, plus turn people into thralls and sleep in coffins. Joining the Dawnguard and hunting Vampires gets you some new weapons, including a crossbow, and some new armor, but I think that's about it. I expect the reason for most of the people that join them is so they can be a werewolf. And now both vampires and werewolves have perk trees, but you can go from vampire lord form to human form and back again as many times as you want, whenever you want, plus you can do awesome vampire magic and stuff, so I chose to prey on the innocent and become a vampire. And I heard that there was at least one more shout being added to the game, but now I can confirm that it's at least two. My biggest concern was that vampirism would mess up my character's face and make him look bad like in Oblivion, but my guy's face looks way cooler now, plus you get glowing eyes. And I'm not very far in the questline, but so far each one has been interresting and unique.